The academic milieu at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital is nurtured and promoted by the Department of Academics under the Chairmanship of Dr. Anupam Sachdeva. It started as a committee created by the Board of Management in 1996 under the stewardship of Dr. K.C. Mahajan. It flourished under his guidance into a full-fledged Department of Academics. He is now the Advisor of the department. The department has been entrusted with the following tasks.
Coordinating the teaching program of the various departments of the hospital (India) and putting them together into a single comprehensive booklet. The Department of Academics ensures that the curriculum set by the National Board of Examinations is strictly adhered to over the year regularity by each individual department. Periodic meetings of the Department of Academics with the DNB students of each department in groups are carried out every quarter so that adequate feedback is available. They are encouraged to come forward with their difficulties and problems and every attempt is made to solve them in-house or if necessary seek assistance from other hospitals.
Arranging lectures by visiting National and International faculty both from Hospitals in India and abroad who are well known in their respective fields. The hospital has had the privilege in the last few years of hosting and listening to some of the best-known luminaries in their respective fields which has tremendously helped both the resident staff and the faculty to update their knowledge and seek clarifications from their guests. This also ensures that the hospital is exposed to all categories of doctors from different countries visiting India.
- Encouraging academic activities in the hospital like doing and publishing original research as well as holding seminars, workshops, panel discussions, and journal clubs.
The Department of Academics has over the last few years ensured the conduct of regular seminars and workshops of very high quality and with regularity in the hospital. Such activities are recognized by the Delhi Medical Council for which a certification is given to the person attending the conferences in order to bring up their CME hours which are necessary for them to get reaccreditation.
The consultants and residents are encouraged to publish their original research and in this regard, the hospital has a number of publications both in national as well as international journals. For any paper read by a clinical assistant, resident, or postgraduate student in any part of India, the traveling allowance and registration fee expenses are borne by the hospital. The department also assists various other departments in conducting national and international conferences and the hospital has become synonymous with hosting well-planned and conducted conferences in different specialties.
To ensure the above the Department of Academics has a hardworking staff consisting of Mr. Sansar Chand, Deepak Shaklya, K.K. Choudhary, and Harinder Negi offering the following services.
- Secretarial assistance to the students and faculty towards the preparation of the slides and the publication data.
- Accessing Medline to make available material to write papers. The data are then stored in the computer so that they can be accessed at any time.
- Providing the latest LCD/ DLP projection facilities. One of the experts accompanies the speaker to the venue of the lecture both in Delhi and even in adjoining towns. This facility is available for a nominal fee which covers the transport and the TA/DA of a person who accompanies the speaker.
- Making available 24-hour Internet services.
- Making possible live demonstrations of various procedures.
- The hospital has invested in fiber optic cabling from the Operation Theatres, Cardiac operation theatre, and the Endoscopic Room to the main Auditorium.The staff of the Department of Academics is capable of relaying live telecasts of various procedures and two-way communication is possible without inviting an outside agency.
Another task of the department is to conduct a clinical meeting on the first of each month where individual departments in turn present their achievements and the latest trends in their respective fields. Two of these meetings in a year are in the form of clinicopathological conferences, the discussant of which is an invited faculty member from the best-known institutions of the country. It is a matter of great pride that the hospital has such a large wealth of good and interesting clinical data that the Department of Academics has been able to regularly conduct clinicopathological conferences of a high standard. The department publishes a quarterly Hospital Newsletter which provides information on the hospital activities both academic and otherwise and also invites interesting and relevant articles from the hospital faculty.
To ensure an environment conducive to effective learning, the Department of Academics has had the hospital library renovated into a state-of-the-art functional unit with a paper as well as an electronic section. In the electronic section students and faculty are provided computer facilities with access to the internet where they are able to perform Medline searches in CD ROMs. The department has also procured the full set of teaching CDs available with the National Boards which are used by the students to update their knowledge. There are also facilities here to view videotapes of the operative procedures. The department also manages the official website of the hospital regularly updating the information on it. Last but not least, the department conducts the DNB entrance examination for the various Diplomate of National Board of Examination (DNB) courses in the hospital in India. This is done in a fair and impartial manner and is based on the pattern of the best-known institutions of the world. The good reputation of this system is largely reflected by the yearly increase in the number of applicants.
The Department of Academics has been recognized to be a model for other hospitals in India conducting DNB courses.
