The demand for medical education has gone up in recent years, with a plethora of opportunities opening up in the health care sector. At the same time, there is a need for ethical conduct on the part of medical practitioners, according to Ravi Raju Tatapudi, Vice-Chancellor of NTR University of Health Sciences and former Director of Medical of Education.
He said doctors should update their knowledge, while efforts should be made to improve the quality of teaching at medical colleges. Also, the government should prop up hospitals in the public sector. “Only in such a scenario, patients can be given the best treatment at reasonable cost,” he added.
A globally acclaimed nephrologist hailing from Visakhapatnam, Dr. Raju has initiated reforms aimed at streamlining the administrative procedures including admissions and examinations which came under a cloud of suspicion recently following the surfacing of a major scandal in P.G Medical Entrance Test (PGMET) which had to be conducted afresh on April 27.
He observed that conferring of a medical degree permanently without the mandate of continuous updating and periodic assessment of skills of the medical practitioners does not augur well for public health in India.
A significant change at NTRUHS is the conduct of all examinations online, starting with the one for admission to DM (super-specialty degree) courses towards the end of July or early August. Besides, greater emphasis is being laid on research.
Dr. Raju completed DM in nephrology from the prestigious Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research at Chandigarh in 1985 after which he started teaching as Assistant Professor of Nephrology at Andhra Medical College (AMC) in Visakhapatnam. He had since not looked back in his career spanning over three decades.
Not the one to rest on his laurels, he is lending his expertise for hospitals and medical institutions around the world while being Professor Emeritus in AMC. He was closely associated with establishment of Department of Nephrology at AMC and in introducing DM super-speciality course (in nephrology) which was at that time available only in Osmania Medical College.
Dr. Raju said the establishment of haemodialysis centres across A.P when he was DME from 2008 to 2011, setting up of advanced radiological diagnostic centres where 1.5 Tesla MRI and 16-slice CT scanning machines generated top quality reports, commissioning of Catheterization Lab at King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam and conceptualization and implementation of Jeevandan Cadaver Organ Donation Programme gave him utmost satisfaction. He has just taken up a complete overhaul of the administration of NTRUHS as its Vice-Chancellor with due focus on research.
