As it was announced that final year medical students can join coronavirus pandemic fight, leading digital CME provider Omnicuris, which offers medical skill upgradation to doctors through online modules and courses, has joined hands with Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) and Maharashtra University of Health Sciences to train their medical and nursing students for making them aware on how to deal with coronavirus using digital technology.

The module includes precautions to be taken while in contact with a suspect, how to take care of personal hygiene, how to conduct testing for a suspect and guidelines on how to treat patients.

With total count increasing to 1071 in India including 215 in Maharashtra and 81 in Karnataka, this initiative will strengthen the health care workforce, speed up the process of testing and treatment and provide protective cover to ageing doctors who are themselves at high risk of contracting the infection and, possibly, dying of it. The development came after sector experts suggested an all-hands-on-deck approach with strategic protection to older specialists.

Through this association, Omnicuris will be able to strengthen its scientific expertise and facilities and widen its reach to doctors. By going digital for lectures, Omnicuris reach out to the final year students of these universities in the times when people are going through a nationwide lockdown.

Savitha Kuttan, Founder & CEO of Omnicuris said, “We are very happy to collaborate with Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. Through this association, we will be able to teach final-year medical students about COVID-19, which has so far affected over 1000 people in India. Making this training available to the budding doctors and nurses is an important element to breaking the unbreakable chain of coronavirus pandemic and will also provide an aid to our healthcare industry. With our disease burden due to the COVID-19 is constantly increasing, continuous skill upgradation and training healthcare professionals become very important for all doctors.”

According to various reports, India has one doctor for every 1,500 persons; World Health Organization (WHO) norms suggest that there must be one doctor for every 1,000 persons. In rural India, however, this ratio goes down to as low as one doctor for over 10,000 patients. Every year, nearly 38,000 postgraduation and 70,000 MBBS students graduate from colleges in India.

Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, Vice Chancellor, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences said, “The main aim of conducting this online lecture series is to provide maximum knowledge to the person, who is working in the field. They should also have proper understanding of the innovations that are happening everyday. They should also gain knowledge on the new ideas to fight Covid. The HCPs and PG students of students of MUHS working on the field are not getting spare time to read on Covid-19 and through the collaboration with Omnicuris they now will get updated knowledge and know what is happening on a day to day basis.”

Dr S. Sachidanand, Vice Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences said, “Coronavirus is a vast topic and the way it’s affecting people across the world, students need to be prepared when they are working on the ground. They should know every detail about the COVID-19 pandemic and what all precautionary measures they should adhere to as a healthcare professional. We are sure that Omnicuris will help our students to stay updated about it”.

In India, everybody has access to specialists in tier 1 cities. However, in smaller towns, primary care physicians are usually 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. Omnicuris is also planning to do the same in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.