Bridging Medical Expertise Gap, Delhi Government brings ed-tech platform Omnicuris onboard for free of cost skill upgradation of Delhi Doctors

Leading online CME platform Omnicuris has collaborated with Delhi Medical Council to help provide free of cost medical skill upgradation to Delhi's government doctors through online modules and courses. Under the initiative, Omnicuris has been selected as the Delhi government's official partner for online CMEs. 

The announcement was made today at a conclave inaugurated by Mr Satyendra Kumar Jain, Delhi Health Minister; Ms Savitha Kuttan, CEO of Omnicuris, and Dr Arun Kumar Gupta, President of Delhi Medical Council. The conclave focused on solutions to address the knowledge as well as practice skill gap for both private and public doctors. 

Regular Continued Medical Education (CME) is an important requirement for doctors to help them stay abreast with the latest developments -- conceptual as well as technological -- in their fields. CMEs are a crucial source of skill upgradation and sharpening of knowledge for doctors and are critical to their performance in delivering quality healthcare. However, for heavily loaded government doctors practising in overcrowded public hospitals, attending regular CMEs becomes challenging. Online CME courses allow doctors to access the latest modules in their respective fields through the digital medium at a space and time of their convenience.

Launched in 2016, Omnicuris is a leading online CME provider that has been upskilling doctors. So far over 1 lakh doctors have accessed online CME modules offered by Omnicuris. These doctors are spread in both the private as well as in the public sectors across various NHM (National Health Mission) priorities which include – NCDs, infectious diseases, maternal and child health etc. Omnicuris offers free of cost courses in 10 specialities across medicine and has partnerships with over 35 medical associations. By going digital for lectures, Omnicuris boosts its reach to doctors across the country including in smaller towns and rural areas irrespective of their geographic locations or travel budgets. Healthcare providers and presenters should consider these benefits for their forthcoming classes as online CME is becoming more and more commonplace within the medical community. 

“We are very happy to work in collaboration with the Delhi Government and DMC. Through this association, we will be able to spread our reach among a larger number of doctors practising in the national capital. Making regular CME available to all practising doctors is an important element of improving our overall healthcare delivery. Quality online CME modules make it convenient for busy doctors access this important element of continuous medical education. It is crucial to enable them to adhere to the most updated medical practices, drug prescription as well as surgical methodologies. With our disease burden constantly evolving and new features being added constantly to existing medical knowledge, continuous skill upgradation becomes very important for all doctors. We have already started working towards achieving our aims to reach 2.5 lakh doctors by the end of 2019, with a special focus on Eastern, North Eastern states,” said Ms Savitha Kuttan, CEO of Omnicuris. 

In India, everybody has access to specialists in tier 1 cities. However, in smaller towns, primary care physicians are mostly the first line of medical help people receive. Ability to perform appropriate diagnosis and reference is crucial for primary care physicians who act as the most important cogs in the medical wheel. The need for making regular CMEs accessible as well as compulsory is the need of the hour to sharpen the knowledge and skills of doctors.

A Lancet report published last year found that 1.6 million people died due to poor quality of care in India in 2016. It concluded that inadequate quality of healthcare was a greater problem than access to healthcare. Various studies have proven a significant knowledge gap as well as practice gaps by both public and private doctors behind the inadequate quality of healthcare. This highlights the need for upskilling and reskilling of doctors and regularly upgrading their knowledge. 

Mr Satyendra Kumar Jain, Delhi Health Minister, launched the online platform in the event and praised the initiative as it will help the doctors to upgrade their skills free of cost. 

“The best part of this CME platform is that you don’t have to travel far off to attend the sessions. A doctor can access the session by sitting at the home and that also without paying for it. One of the drawbacks of our education system is it is formal and we don’t pay attention to the education after passing out from school and college. There is no focus on continuous education.  Another drawback is with the advent of the internet, it has become difficult to comprehend whether the knowledge we are getting is authentic information or not. But, with Omnicuris, one can study without thinking about all these. I just have one request that their study modules should have chapters on food, exercise, thought the process and soft skills as these are very important for a doctor as well as patient,” said Mr Satyendra Kumar Jain.

The need of the hour is to upgrade the knowledge so that we can address the changing disease pattern and rising incidence of NCDs in the country. 

 “Now doctors of Delhi can update their knowledge and get credit points without moving physically from one place to other. In the era of rapidly advancing medical science, it’s of utmost importance to keep your knowledge updated. Attending conventional CMEs takes a lot of travelling, time and money. We are providing this service free to all doctors of Delhi at the comfort of their homes,” said Dr Arun Kumar Gupta, President of Delhi Medical Council.