Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) adopts the Advanced Certificate Course in Prevention and Management of Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases (ACMDC) for Municipal Medical Officers

Realizing that growing burden and challenge of Diabetes coupled with Cardiovascular Diseases is now a growing risk amongst people and is increasing alarmingly in the State of West Bengal, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), along with Kolkata Diabetes and Endocrinology Forum, Public Health Foundation of India and Chellaram Diabetes Institute (Pune) today announced the adoption of the Advanced Certificate Course in Prevention and Management of Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease (ACMDC) for Municipal Medical Officers of KMC. The aim is to develop core skills and competencies for selected 15 doctors of KMC to build capacity amongst them to address management, counselling, referral and prevention of Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases. KMC becomes the first Municipal Corporation in India to adopt this unique initiative to train Medical Officers in the area of cardio-diabetology.

It is now an established fact that people with diabetes are two to four times as likely to have cardiovascular disease (heart and blood vessel disease) or stroke, with this risk being even greater for women who have diabetes. Globally around 415 million people are suffering from diabetes, which is expected to rise to a total of 642 million by 2040. India alone has 69.2 million people with diabetes and 77.2 million people with pre-diabetes as of year 2011. Diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) affect a growing number of people in the low and middle income countries, with India topping the charts, affecting quality of life and life expectancy both.

Addressing the gathering the Hon’ble Mayor of Kolkata, Shri Sovan Chattopadhyay said, “The prevalence of Diabetes is increasing at an extremely rapid pace in West Bengal. And now coupled with the twin burden of cardiovascular diseases, there is an urgent need to build capacity in municipal doctors with latest progressions in these areas as both diseases have become a serious health threat with exploding population and changing lifestyle. I am happy that KMC has adopted this course for its doctors, equipping them with the latest advances and would benefit a far bigger section of the patients which municipal doctors look after on a daily basis, impacting a large population.”

The Mayor lauded the efforts of PHFI, which has earlier through its Certificate Course in Evidence Based Diabetes Management trained Municipal doctors with cutting-edge international and national trainings. He congratulated Kolkata Diabetes and Endocrinology Forum, especially Dr. Tirthankar Chaudhury, for his unhindered support to KMC towards fighting the menace of diabetes in all forms. He welcomed Chellaram Diabetes Institute for partnering towards this initiative to take Diabetes management and public health to a new high in the city.

Dr Sandeep Bhalla, Program Director, Training – Centre for Chronic Conditions and Injuries said, “At PHFI our endeavour has been to help strengthen education, training, and research in the area of Public Health. Carefully planned prevention programs like Cardio-Diabetology course model with impactful intervention strategies needs to be taken up in different parts of the country to prevent the double epidemic of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, as both have common causative factors, and prevention strategies implemented judiciously would make it more cost-effective. We at PHFI are extremely honoured to work once again with Kolkata Municipal Corporation, and are grateful to the policymakers for considering our unique courses to train their doctors.”

Prof. D Prabhakaran, Vice President – Research & Policy, PHFI said, “With the rising tide of diabetes around the globe, the double jeopardy of diabetes and cardiovascular disease is set to result in an explosion of cardiovascular complications that are the major causes of premature death in people. Today the medical fraternity requires to gear upto the challenge of effectively preventing, diagnosing and treating the expanding number of diabetics and cardiovascular disease in India as there are relatively less number of trained physicians and this vacuum needs to be filled. The Advanced Certificate Course in Prevention and Management of Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease course imparts physicians with latest developments in the field of diabetes and cardiovascular disease management. Over the past few years PHFI has successfully carved a niche for itself by training over 13000 physicians’ across India through various capacity building initiatives for primary care physicians.”

In his address Dr AG Unnikrishnan CEO of Chellaram Diabetes Institute (CDI), Pune, said, “The aim of CDI is to make an impact on diabetes care in India and with this motto we feel proud to co-host the launch of this unique initiative for building capacity for physicians of Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases in diabetes has been traditionally through including dietary modification, regular exercise, risk factor control and smoking cessation. However there is a need to bring advanced management into the realm of primary care.  This unique ACMDC programme will bridge the gap by empowering doctors, fine tuning their skills, and ultimately provide high quality care to a large number of individuals, families and communities.

In his address Dr. Tirthankar Chaudhury President, Kolkata Diabetes and Endocrinology Forum said, “The number of people with diabetes is ever increasing, so the outlook for heart disease is becoming even more alarming. Hence the management of CVDs and Diabetes has become a huge challenge for healthcare professionals. We at KDEF are honoured to once again support Kolkata Municipal Corporation in its efforts is to strengthen the capacity of municipal doctors to tackle the widespread menace of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, its screening and management.”

The ACMDC is an on-job training program with six study modules spanning over six consecutive months with once a month contact session. These sessions are conducted on a designated weekend at various Regional Centres. The first cycle successfully trained 846 number of doctors across India and the second cycle trained 757 doctors in 35 regional centres covering 17 states, 1 Union Territory and 32 cities across India. The course has been designed by a panel of 10 National Experts and delivered by 70 Regional Faculty across India. ACMDC is a comprehensive course comprising of modules, case studies, interactive videos and group exercises. All the participants are evaluated on a basis of a test both prior and after the module. The modules cover all practical aspects of use of insulin and newer medications including lipid management, vascular examination, advanced cardiac testing that promise cardio-metabolic risk reduction and case-based approaches to screen and evaluate diabetic vascular disease, especially diabetic nephropathy, retinopathy and peripheral arterial disease. The program has been conceptualized to train Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) across the country with an ultimate objective to improve patient outcomes by enabling prevention, early diagnosis, evidence based treatment of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases and further establishing a robust referral linkage.