Chairman's Message
Dr Mahender Vyasabattu is the Founder & Chairman of Osler’s Academy. His vision to create parallel postgraduate training programs lead to the establishment of Osler’s Academy. Since 2012 till date, he has been crucial in designing and running the flagship ‘ Clinical Primer Program’ which is a United Kingdom Core Medical Training / United States Residency equivalent.
Currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA, he is still closely involved with teaching, content creation and refinement of the training programs. His notable earlier positions include Faculty & Hospitalist position at Baton Rouge General Hospital, US, Locum Consultant in Acute Medicine at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, UK. He trained and worked for over six years in the UK and a similar duration in the US.He spent a little over seven years in India as well.
Dr Mahender strongly believes that the most cost effective and ethical business is half charity while charity by designation is a futile effort. This principle is well applied in the design of the training programs. In fact, these are the first structured parallel postgraduate training programs in India and South Asia . That they are robust, is proved by the trainees when they attempt and pass the worlds reputed MRCP-UK exams. These exams are a strong third party ratification of the standard of training. The cost of the programs is a fraction of what it incurs in a majority of government sponsored programs, let alone the private.
This pioneering exercise is well received by trainees. Most have successfully finished their target examinations and are currently licensed to practice in India or abroad, mostly in the UK. This model propelled similar programs across the country. Some of them are robustly structured and with the help of JRCPTB of United Kingdom, have become accredited as well.
Dr Mahender says- “ I am happy to see many more hospitals in India are considering such programs. Country needs to produce 70000 postgraduates each year, there is no way Oslers Academy can handle those numbers. We just set the trend and path ! Gone by are those days when post graduation can only be obtained through medical colleges. Truth is, a postgraduate trainee does not go to the medical college for even a single day in his or her entire three years of training. India lost valuable fifty years, stuck in the archaic system. Hopefully things will change and every graduate gets to be a postgraduate. The medical work force for the country are the postgraduates. Until this issue is addressed, all efforts till date in enhancing the medical college numbers and graduate numbers, will not be rewarded.
I want my trainees not to complain that they are not given enough resources. Any one can get results if given ample money , manpower and time. The above three will always be the limiting factors . If you learn to overcome them, success is in your pocket’
The most satisfying thing for me is when the trainees who passed out successfully, come back to teach at the Academy and I am glad , more and more are doing that, despite their hardships in new careers. It tells me what is in their hearts!