Columbia Asia Hospitals, Global Health Alliance and University of Leeds come together to train Cardiac Care Technicians

Bangalore: Columbia Asia Hospitals, Global Health Alliance and University of Leeds have collaborated to run a joint certification program for Cardiac Care Technicians in India. This is the first time such a Cardiac Care technician has undergone this training in India.

“The first batch has successfully undergone a six month course that was organised at Columbia Asia Referral Hospital – Yeshwanthpur (Bangalore) to train Nurses and Healthcare professionals to become CCTs”, announced Dr. Rajay Narain, Director of the Global Health Alliance today.

The course was led by Ms Rhona Riley, Lead of Cardiac Physiology at the University of Leeds and Dr. Prabhakar Shetty, Chief of Cardiology – Columbia Asia Hospitals, Bangalore with support of the cardiology team and Dr. Chandrika Kambam Vice President, Clinical Services.

“This six-month course was jointly run and certified by the University of Leeds and the Global Health Alliance. The Cardiac Care Technicians will now be able to work and carry out various procedures along with the cardiologists in the catheterization lab and cardiology department”, said Dr. Nandakumar Jairam, Chairman and Group Medical Director, Columbia Asia Hospitals-India.

“In western countries, each and every catheterization lab has a Cardiac Care Technician who undergoes structured training and then work closely with the interventional cardiologists to deliver care. In case of India, such a training program was a need of the hour”, said Col. Binu Sharma, Senior Vice President Nursing Care.

“The skills of a Cardiac Care Technician is critical to the care given to a patient, hence the technicians need to constantly upgrade the skills with the latest technologies. The course is a structured and systematic way to up skill the technicians on various skills that are required for quality patient care”, commented Ms. Rhona Riley.

The program involved:

6 Months Module created by University of Leeds
Faculty from UK
A Local Mentor – Chief of Cardiology Department, Columbia Asia Bangalore
Hospital Clinical Attachments
Assessment at the end of the course by faculty from UK
Certification from the University of Leeds as ‘Cardiac Care Technician’ on passing all the modules

The skills achieved by the Cardiac Care technician include:

Perform 12 Lead ECG
Basic ECG Interpretation & Cardiac Monitoring
Ambulatory BP Application and Understanding
Ambulatory ECG Application
ECG Event Recorder Application
Assist in various Cath-Lab Procedures
Assist with Exercise Tolerance Testing
Prepare patients for Cardiac Diagnostic Testing, Pacemaker follow up, Echocardiography
Team Management and Professionalism