The Union Health Ministry on Thursday launched the nation's first digital Online Oncology Tutorial Series, which aims to train doctors across the country in early detection, prevention, palliation, rehabilitation and treatment of various cancers.
 

The digital Online Oncology Tutorial Series has been designed by the Tata Memorial Centre in collaboration with the Union Health Ministry, and is part of a national programme that will be rolled out across the country in collaboration with state governments."This is a visionary step that will leverage advances in IT to strengthen health outreach and health services in the country," said Preeti Sudan, Secretary in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (HFW).According to Sudan, the initiative will help the doctors upgrade their knowledge and skills regularly thereby taking care of obsolescence.

"This initiative can save many precious lives and improve quality of life of many more," Sudan added.The course is intended for physicians, gynecologists, dentists and other healthcare professionals who are not oncologists, but can play a very crucial role in early detection and diagnosis of cancers."This will equip them with the skills and knowledge on basics of oncology to detect, diagnose and refer cancer cases early. The online video lectures are also designed to update oncologists with the evidence based guidelines and skill for the management of cancer," said Sudan.

The overall course is designed for seven weeks with different modules based on various sites and sub-sites of Cancer.It comprises of 14 hours of comprehensive e-learning through more than 40 video lectures, case studies, assessment questionnaires and periodic interactive Webinar sessions with respective consultants of Tata Memorial Hospital.