Indian Doctors join hands to Lead Innovative Project to Transform Disability Education in Healthcare
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Bhopal: In an exciting step towards achieving better healthcare for persons with disabilities a group of doctors from India in collaboration with the University of Chicago, is launching on Doctor's Day a groundbreaking project that aims to train health professional educators teaching about disability competencies using methods from medical humanities.
Dr Satendra Singh, a distinguished physician with a disability, will be one of the key members of this group. This transformative initiative, which builds on earlier work to draft competencies on disability-inclusive healthcare now integrated into India's national medical curriculum, seeks to empower healthcare professionals with the tools to provide inclusive and equitable care for all. The project is titled Disability Inclusive Compassionate Care 2.0.
According to the WHO’s 2022 global report on health equity, approximately one in six persons has some form of disability. This highlights the urgent need to address the impact of disabilities and ensure that healthcare professionals are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to provide quality care to this population.
Despite the National Medical Commission mandating the teaching of disability in medical education, implementation has been slow due to a lack of proper training and resources. This project aims to fill that gap by providing comprehensive training to health professional educators, enabling them to effectively teach disability competencies to future healthcare professionals.
The project will create a cohort of health professional educators who will be equipped with the necessary knowledge and teaching methods to effectively impart disability-related education. These educators will then serve as pioneers, piloting the innovative teaching methods in their respective health professional colleges, spreading the impact of the project far and wide.
The project will use the power of storytelling and creative approaches to enhance healthcare education. The project team believes that traditional methods like lectures and slides are not enough to teach empathy, inclusivity, and sensitivity. Instead, they are incorporating methods such as Theatre of the Oppressed, poetry, disability ethics, and graphic medicine. These innovative approaches create engaging and immersive experiences that challenge societal norms and foster empathy and understanding among healthcare professionals.
By training health professional educators in these creative methods, the project seeks to promote a more inclusive and patient-centric approach to healthcare. The goal is to equip healthcare professionals with the skills and knowledge to understand the experiences, challenges, and needs of individuals with disabilities, leading to more equitable and effective care.
The project will culminate with a national conference where the findings, experiences, and best practices from the project will be shared with a wider audience. Additionally, a comprehensive teaching guide will be developed, encompassing the innovative methods used in the project. This teaching guide will be made freely available to educators across the country, ensuring its accessibility and promoting the widespread adoption of disability-inclusive teaching practices.
The project, a collaboration between esteemed institutions including the University of Chicago, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Sangath, University College of Medical Sciences, and Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, brings together experts from different fields under the umbrella of the initiative for Health Equity Advocacy and Research (iHEAR) to create positive change in healthcare education.
Dr Satendra Singh, a leader in the field of disability healthcare, brings a unique perspective to the project as a physician with a disability. Drawing from personal experiences, Dr Singh advocates for a healthcare system that recognizes and addresses the diverse needs of individuals with disabilities, ensuring their full participation in society. Dr Satendra Singh expressed his optimism about the project, stating, "To counter ableism and health disparities among people with disabilities, we advocate the use of humanistic tools to impart disability competencies.
Our goal is to make health professions education, training, and practice disability-inclusive, accessible, and equitable. This aligns with the recent WHO mandate and disability legislation of training all healthcare workforce in disability competencies”.
Talking about the collaboration with the Indian institutions, the lead from University of Chicago, Dr Kamala Cotts said, "As health professionals we have a collective, moral and ethical imperative to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. We must strive to respect the inherent dignity, beauty and strength in diversity."
Through this project, the participating institutions are committed to promoting health equity, transforming societal attitudes towards disability, and creating a future where individuals with disabilities receive the healthcare they deserve.
Talking about the project the Vice Chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences Lt Gen (Retd) Madhuri Kanitkar, said, “The significant work of the collaborating institutions and teams in Disability Inclusive Compassionate Care over the past few years has helped the cause gain the much-needed attention of national stakeholders, resulting in pathbreaking action steps.
This success needs to be translated into mass awareness and action through training of educators, most importantly, of health professionals and incorporated into the curriculum in a seamless way. It calls for strong steps towards implementation and dissemination, knowledge and skill development, capacity building and research.
Maharashtra University of Health Sciences being a national leader in capacity building in the health professions and having carried out faculty development for health professionals since over 15 years is excited about this collaboration to give the cause further momentum.”
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