With the advent of this ongoing pandemic, the whole world has identified the need of apex healthcare for mankind. It has become paramount that every nation focuses on robust healthcare systems and deliver the best towards patient engagement and saving lives to the best extent. It is only possible when a country’s health department and concerning bodies are functioning well with effective and efficient workforce.
Therefore, the next most important thing is to train and develop the future healthcare givers and medical experts who can proactively provide exceptional care services to the public. One such institute imbibing these values and working towards becoming one of the leading names in the healthcare and related research discipline is Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR), South @ Bangalore.
It is an institution dedicated to improving standards of health through better management of health care and related programs. It seeks to accomplish this through management research, training, consultation, and institutional networking from a national and global perspective. “We envisage to become a leading education and interdisciplinary research institution,” says the team of IIHMR.
It is a premier institute for Hospital and Health Management education in South India. IIHMR Bangalore has a legacy over a decade for imparting Health and Hospital Management education, training, and research activities in South India. IIHMR Bangalore was founded in the year 2004 as the south campus of IIHMR Society offering flagship programme in Hospital and Health Management.
In the year 2010, IIHMR, Bangalore got approval from AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), Ministry of HRD, government of India to offer two years full-time PGDM (Post Graduate Diploma in Hospital and Health Management) programme with specializations in Hospital Management, Health Management and Health Information Technology (HIT) Management and Pharmaceutical Management. The program is accredited by NBA and NABET. The Association of Indian Universities (AIU) has awarded MBA equivalence to the PGDM programme. IIHMRBangalore is also NAD compliant and registered with NIRF. The PGDM course has been designed and updated regularly by faculty members and healthcare industry experts to match the industry needs.
IIHMR Bangalore has played a vital role in enhancing the skills of management professionals and had improved management practices in health and related systems for competency development among health/hospital managers, planners, decision-makers, trainers, and research scientists at the national and international levels. Management professionals graduating from the portals of this institution are trained as go-getters and are in tune with the needs of the healthcare industry. In the year 2015, IIHMR Bangalore became the first educational institute in India to be accredited by NABET as hospital and healthcare consultant organization for NABH standards. IIHMR, Bangalore as a leader and consultant in hospital and health management; would now be helping hospitals and healthcare organizations to get NABH certification of QCI (Quality Council of India). Considering the industry requirements, IIHMR Bangalore is contributing skills-based training programs in Digital Health, Digital Marketing, Nutrition and Health etc.
IIHMR, Bangalore has a proven track record of doing high-end research work in the areas of hospital and healthcare. International collaborations and partnerships with top hospitals and healthcare organizations such as Maastricht University, University of Mysore, Piramal Swasthya, Sri Rajarajeshwari Medical College and Research Center, B.N.M Institute of Technology, etc. have provided the network and bandwidth to expand the research and healthcare consultancy offerings for IIHMR-Bangalore.
Dynamics of IIHMR
“As we have a strong focus on 360-degree development of our students, there are several activities conducted to ensure the same,” states the team of IIHMR.
Some of the key activities are:
- Industry training (in 1st and 2nd year) and Internships
- Mentor-Mentee program
- Individual Social Responsibility (ISR) based social initiatives
- Annual sports meet
- Cultural festival
- Healthcare Conference at IIHMR
- Alumni Meet
The jolt of this ongoing pandemic was equally felt in healthcare academics sector as well. Classes were discontinued on priority. Uncertainty loomed over the continuation of academic curriculum, industrial trainings, and management development programs. IIHMR, Bangalore, was quick enough to respond towards ensuring the continuity of ongoing classes and switched over to the online mode for teaching purpose.
On priority, a comprehensive learning program in sync with the leading healthcare industry stakeholders was planned and implemented to engage students in live projects and consulting. Courage unlocked in the lockdown at IIHMR; students actively supported the COVID-19 management on grounds while pursuing their industrial training with industry stakeholders like RxDx, Keeklee Consulting, Narayana Health, BestDoc, Apollo group of hospitals, Fortis Healthcare, Columbia Asia hospitals, Sparsh etc. with an unfailing spirit.
Individual social responsibility (ISR) was embraced by many of students. More than 15 projects for COVID-19 care support were implemented (12 more projects in pipeline) by students at individual level in their neighbourhoods, guided by faculty members. Learning knows no age, no boundaries! Leveraging technology, the institute scaled up its learning programs and conducted more than 35 faculty development programs and On Live events supported by faculties and partnering with AICTE, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Indian Optometric Association and other KOLs of healthcare industry.
The FDPs and events were themed around COVID-19 preparedness, mental health and well-being, healthcare laws, digital health, telemedicine, nutrition and health management, design thinking and trends in healthcare industry, to name a few. It also included skill development workshops for doctors and management professional in hospital, pharmaceutical and public health sector. “A master stroke was played by global alumni network under a webinar series Master Stoke by sharing industry best practices, clarifying doubts, and conducting skill building workshops on regular basis,” share the management of the institution.
Going forward, IIHMR Bangalore plans to bring in force a Blended Model of learning in healthcare management, encompassing online and offline teaching. Online certificate courses focused on digital health, Artificial Intelligence in healthcare, health insurance, hospital management and data analytics would soon be introduced. This would largely benefit the working professionals seeking higher management roles and people seeking distant education. Management of pandemics at industry and public level is another area we are converging our energies on and further enhancing our expertise in sync with our research and consulting arm which offers services in hospitals and public health sector.
Awards and Recognitions
- IIHMR Bangalore awarded with Business School of the Year 2018 for Innovative Pedagogy by The Academics Insights Magazine
- IIHMR Bangalore was recognized as Management College of the Year 2019 for Best Return on Investment, by Higher Education Review
- IIHMR-Bangalore has received the National Award for Excellence in Education and Industry Interface by World Education Congress, Mumbai 2020 03 MM | 2020
LEADING IHMR
M. Phil (HHSM) Ph.D. from BITS, Pilani, Rajasthan, Dr. Usha Manjunath is the Director and Professor at the IIHMR, Bangalore. Usha comes with the unique experience of academics, programme management, communication, and health system research/management. She has completed projects in fields such as formative research, impact evaluation and implementation research in Primary Healthcare, Reproductive and Child Health, Programme Management, Process Evaluation of Universal Immunization Program and more. She has successfully worked with agencies such as GoK, Unicef, GoI, WHO, Piramal Swasthya and others.
She has published a book titled ‘Total Quality in Healthcare – An Empirical Investigation’ based on her Ph.D. thesis, supported by ICSSR Grant and she has been conferred with the ‘Outstanding Editor’ award by AIMS International. She is also trained in ‘Strategic Leadership and Management in Healthcare’ from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and IIHMR Delhi.
Talking about the future of IIHMR, Usha conveys, “With the evolving technology, education sector is also underway a major transformational shift.” The way education is delivered and received is changing. Going forward we have strong focus on skill and performance-based education. As students are gaining more independence over the learning process due to technology, we plan to integrate ‘Mentoring’ as a core fundamental for every student to help them pave their way in the career path. Integrating live project-based approach to learning and evaluation to make students apply skills and learning acquired in the classroom will be another crucial integration for the college.
