Capacity Building of Medical Professionals on Clinical Care of HIV/AIDS >>

The Indian Business Trust recognises the need to forge strong partnerships at all levels in the fight against the HIV epidemic. It works in partnership with industry as well as NGOs and Government to maximise knowledge and ability strengths, fill in gaps where required and to mobilize corporate sector participation in the Government led national programme for enhancing drug availability, diagnostics facilities, care and support facilities for AIDS patients on antiretroviral therapy.

Training programme for Doctors & paramedics

At a time when the treatment of AIDS cases became a major area of concern, both in India and across the world; the high cost of ARV drugs proved prohibitive; and, there was an absence of standard protocols for treatment, the CII, under the aegis of the Australia India Council (AIC), developed and conducted clinical care training programmes for doctors dealing with HIV cases and treating patients with ART.

2003

The programme started in Jan 2003. In the first phase, physicians from Australia interacted with 36 doctors from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The programme included discussions and case study presentations on initiation of treatment, dose of drugs, interaction between drugs, treatment of opportunistic (unusual) infections, and prevention of the development of resistance to anti HIV drugs. The presentations by Prof Suzanne Crowe, Prof Anne Mijch, and Prof Debbie Marriott of AIC led to a lot of case study discussions by the doctors in regard to the treatment they administer. Documentation training materials were also distributed among the participants.

The programme was appreciated by all the participating physicians and a need was felt to take this initiative to as many cities as possible.

Followed by the success of the first 4 workshops, CII conducted three more programmes in 2003 at Hyderabad, Jaipur and Cochin. The trainers were invited from those already trained by AIC physicians. The participants at each workshop were drawn from corporate sector, NGO's, private practice and Government officials from hospitals.

Seven workshops have been conducted from Jan 2003 to Nov 2003 and about 130 doctors including NGOs and corporate members have participated.

The details of the workshops conducted in the year 2003 are as follows:

In November 2003, the Indian health Minister announced a national programme for free ART from 1 April 2004, for AIDS patients in 6 high prevalence states. Following this announcement, the need to partner with the government's efforts, and to take it beyond doctor's training to the training of other healthcare workers, became even more pronounced.

CII hence decided to work in partnership with NACO, to carry the AIC - CII programme further.

2004

CII, in partnership with AIC, conducted 6 training programmes for Doctors on HIV/ AIDS Clinical Care in June - July 2004. The participants at each workshop were drawn from physicians located in the corporate hospitals, NGO's, private practice and government hospitals.

Dr Philipp Du Cros, from the Infectious Disease Unit of the Alfred Hospital, Australia was the chief trainer at the workshops and was supported by eminent Doctors, with rich experience of dealing with AIDS in India, from the State AIDS Control Societies in each of the 6 States. The workshops were conducted with the active support of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), India and the State AIDS Control Societies in each of the six states.

The workshop schedule and participant numbers are as follows:

Sl No	Place of Workshop	Dates of workshop	Number of participants
1	Bhubaneswar	19-20 June 2004	38
2	Jamshedpur	23-24 June 2004	23
3	Guwahati	26-27 June 2004	15
4	Miraj	30 June - 1 July 2004	20
5	Bangalore	3- 4 July 2004	71
6	Ahmedabad	6- 7 July 2004	28
	TOTAL		195

A total of 322 doctors from 13 states in India have received training as part of this progarmme.

2005

In 2005, CII - AIC conducted training for other Health Care professionals which included nurses, lab technicians and paramedic staff at corporate and government hospitals.

6 workshops took place as per the following schedule:

3 trainers from Australia conducted the workshops together with their Indian counterparts. More than 300 participants attended the programme.

2006

The next batch of training of doctors started in March 2006. The first round of workshop was conducted in 8 cities across the southern and western region of the country.

The workshop schedule as follows:

More than 400 doctors attended the training programme. This was followed by a second round of HIV/AIDS Clinical care training for Doctors in the month of May'06.

5 workshops were conducted in the following cities:

1.	Jamshedpur	2–	3 May 2006
2.	Kolkata	5–	6 May 2006
3.	Bhubaneswar	9–	10 May 2006
4.	Jaipur	15–	16 May 2006
5.	Srinagar	22–	23 May 2006

4 trainers from Australia conducted the 2006 CII – AIC HIV/AIDS Clinical care training for Doctors. More than 600 doctors attended the programme.

2007

The year 2007 began with training on Nurses and Lab technicians in the month of January. Workshops were scheduled in the cities of Kochin, Vishakhapatnam and Shimla.

Following is the schedule:

Sr. No.	Venue	Date
1	Kochin	17th January 2007
2	Vishakhapatnam	19th January 2007
3	Shimla	24th January 2007

There were 3 main trainers from Australia India Council were Ms. Lisa Morris; Ms. Alison Duncan, and Ms. Christine Bowtell Harris. While the Indian trainers were Dr Shailaja Additional Project Director, Kerala State AIDS Control Society, Dr V Narasimhamurthy, Prof of Medicine & Nodal Officer, ART Centre- King George Hospital, Visakapatnam and Dr Sulakshna Puri, Project Director HPSACS from Chandigarh.

In all the three cities there were about 150 nurses and lab technicians.

In order to address the challenges that exist in the Healthcare delivery in South Asia, a series of interactive sessions were organised with Prof. Suzanne Crowe, Head AIDS Pathogenesis and Clinical Research Program NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health, Australia. She spoke on 'Challenges in health care: A perspective on South Asia'.

The following is the schedule for the lecture series.

15 February '07	Challenges in Healthcare: A Perspective on South Asia-Lecture by Prof. Suzane Crowe	PGI	Chandigarh
17 February '07	Challenges in Healthcare : A Perspective on South Asia-Lecture by Prof. Suzane Crowe	Hotel Mahohar	Hyderabad
19 February '07	Challenges in Healthcare : A Perspective on South Asia-Lecture by Prof. Suzane Crowe	CII	Kolkata
21 February '07	Challenges in Healthcare : A Perspective on South Asia-Lecture by Prof. Suzane Crowe	Hotel Fortune	Ahmedabad

In the month of March, another set of doctor training programs were organised at the following cities. The following is the schedule.

8-9 March '07	CII-AIC HIV/AIDS Clinical Care Train The Trainer Programme for Doctors	Haldia Institute of Technology	Haldia
13-14 March '07	CII-AIC HIV/AIDS Clinical Care Train The Trainer Programme for Doctors	Fortis Healthcare	Chandigarh
20-21 March '07	CII-AIC HIV/AIDS Clinical Care Train The Trainer Programme for Doctors	Apollo Hospital Auditorium Bhat	Ahmedabad
23-24 March '07	CII-AIC HIV/AIDS Clinical Care Train The Trainer Programme for Doctors	Lake View Ashok	Bhopal
26-27 March '07	CII-AIC HIV/AIDS Clinical Care Train The Trainer Programme for Doctors	Sun N Sand Hotel	Pune

With this training program, CII and AIC have covered more than 1400 doctors across India and 500 Nurses and lab technicians.

For details on the program please see the following link:-
HIV & AIDS Clinical Care: Train the Trainer Programme for Doctors