Columbia Asia Hospitals, Global Health Alliance and University of Leeds come together to train Cardiac Care Technicians

Columbia Asia Hospitals, Global Health Alliance and University of Leeds have collaborated to run a joint certification program for Cardiac Care Technicians in India. This is the first time such a Cardiac Care Technician has undergone this training in India.

"The first batch has successfully undergone a six month course that was organised at Columbia Asia Referral Hospital -Yeshwanthpur (Bangalore) to train Nurses and Healthcare professionals to become CCTs," announced Dr. Rajay Narain, Director of the Global Health Alliance today.

The course was led by Rhona Riley, Lead of Cardiac Physiology at the University of Leeds and Dr. Prabhakar Shetty, Chief of Cardiology - Columbia Asia Hospitals, Bangalore with support of the cardiology team and Dr. Chandrika Kambam, Vice President, Clinical Services.

"This six-month course was jointly run and certified by the University of Leeds and the Global Health Alliance. The Cardiac Care Technicians will now be able to work and carry out various procedures along with the cardiologists in the catheterization lab and cardiology department," said Dr. Nandakumar Jairam, Chairman and Group Medical Director, Columbia Asia Hospitals-India.

"In western countries, each and every catheterization lab has a Cardiac Care Technician who undergoes structured training and then work closely with the interventional cardiologists to deliver care. In case of India, such a training program was a need of the hour," said Col. Binu Sharma, Senior Vice President Nursing Care.

"The skills of a Cardiac Care Technician is critical to the care given to a patient, hence the technicians need to constantly upgrade the skills with the latest technologies. The course is structured in a systematic way to up skill the technicians on various skills that are required for quality patient care," commented Rhona Riley.

The program involved:

• 6 Months Module created by University of Leeds

• Faculty from UK

• A Local Mentor - Chief of Cardiology Department, Columbia Asia Bangalore

• Hospital Clinical Attachments

• Assessment at the end of the course by faculty from UK

• Certification from the University of Leeds as 'Cardiac Care Technician' on passing all the modules

The skills achieved by the Cardiac Care technician include:

• Perform 12 Lead ECG

• Basic ECG Interpretation and Cardiac Monitoring

• Ambulatory BP Application and Understanding

• Ambulatory ECG Application

• ECG Event Recorder Application

• Assist in various Cath-Lab Procedures

• Assist with Exercise Tolerance Testing

• Prepare patients for Cardiac Diagnostic Testing, Pacemaker follow up, Echocardiography

• Team Management and Professionalism

The Columbia Asia Group is owned by more than 150 private equity companies, fund management organizations and individual investors. The group currently operates eleven facilities in India and has presence in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Kolkata, Mysore, Patiala and Pune. The company also operates hospitals in Malaysia (11), Vietnam (3) and Indonesia (3). The Indian management operations are managed from its office in Bangalore.

Global Health Alliance is an initiative which is aimed at delivering up-to-date short accredited courses and programs for health professionals. The team consists of experts from renowned universities and hospitals from across the UK. The courses are meant for doctors, nurses, specialist nurses, paramedics, cardiac physiologists & general public.

Leeds Institute of Health Sciences is a multi-disciplinary institute that delivers applied health research, and undergraduate and post graduate teaching programmes aimed at enhancing health and healthcare nationally and internationally.