India’s First Simulation Learning Platform for Critical Care in Public Health Launched

India’s first initiative in public health to build a case-based simulation learning platform for critical care has been launched by Shri Ranjit Singh, Haryana’s Minister for Energy, at the ongoing Integrated Holistic Health Summit of Civil 20 (C20) at Amrita Hospital in Faridabad. 

The DiShA Platform, (short for Digital Shiksha for Advanced Clinical Capacity Building) is India’s first case-based simulation learning platform for critical care in public health. USAID funded and Jhpiego implemented RISE (Reaching Impact, Saturation, and epidemic Control) project’s DiShA platform is developed in collaboration with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, and Amrita Hospitals.    

Said Dr. Prema Nedungadi, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, who is the India Coordinator of C20 Working Group on Education & Digital Transformation: “The Disha platform is launched as a Civil20 initiative inspired by the Chair Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi’s vision of Compassionate Health Care in rural areas. The launch of the DiShA platform is a valuable addition to the education and digital transformation in healthcare. The platform utilizes simulation aides to replicate clinical scenarios for critical care and aims for capacity building by skilling over 1 lakh rural doctors, nurses, technicians in rural areas through a hub and spoke model. 

Said Dr. Prem Nair, Group Medical Director, Amrita Hospitals and Provost, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham: “The COVID-19 pandemic triggered unprecedented advances in online educational technologies. Education should be learner-centered, inclusive, and reach the last mile. I congratulate the Amrita CREATE team for developing an innovative simulation learning platform like DiShA which would harness the power of online technologies to address the scarcity of trained health workforce in critical care in the country.” 

The DiShA platform offers several features to bridge the competency gaps amongst healthcare providers. These include a platform for teaching and assessment of cognitive and skills-based content, social learning methodologies and learning analytics. After extensive field tests, the platform is now ready to be rolled out in 60 hubs and 2070 Spokes in the USAID RISE network of hospitals across India. Jhpiego and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham will facilitate the training of trainers and administrators. 

The recent pandemic exposed the capacity-related challenges of the health system in various states of India. To address these gaps and enhance the provision of care, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), Govt. of India, issued a directive for adequate training and skilling of human resources deployed at all levels of care, based upon recommendations of the constituted Empowered Group -3 (EG- 3) with a mandate to augment human resource and capacity building. The vision is to build a resilient health system that can manage future threats of pandemics. The mission is to work towards building health system resilience and preparedness for responding to future pandemics through the creation of a pool of competent and confident trainers and providers. 

The project is launched as a joint Civil 20 initiative from C20 Integrated Holistic Health, and C20 Education and Digital Transformation.