Punjabi University’s Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMRC) organised a national seminar on “Media and Health: Education, Research and Public Policies” and a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) workshop under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development at the University.
Brahm Mohindra, Punjab Cabinet Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Research and Medical Education, and Parliamentary Affairs was the chief guest on the occasion. Vice-Chancellor, Prof B.S. Ghuman inaugurated the seminar while Dr Vikram Dutt, a noted filmmaker and special health crusader presented the keynote address.
While highlighting various prospective policies of the Punjab government for the poor and underprivileged sections of the society like introducing free dialysis, strengthening, and improving the services in the existing public hospitals, Brahm Mohindra said that a new government hospital would be coming up at Mohali. While talking about the government’s efforts at introducing universal cashless insurance scheme and introducing quality health services at the tertiary level, he urged the media to do ‘positive reporting’ even if it was unavoidable to stay away from sensational coverage.
Prof Ghuman in his inaugural address said that health, drafting and implementation of public policies were dynamic processes for which media and educational institutions could play a vital role. He stressed upon identification of newly emerging health issues and providing convincing suggestions by the media to formulate successful policies by the government. The latter could invite suggestions and observations from all the stakeholders, especially the media, as common person usually does not participate in this process.
Prof Vikram Dutt dwelt on various components of latest national health policy, fixing and achieving goals in the health sector as advocated by the various experts in the field. Director, EMRC, Prof Maan said, that the seminar-cum-workshop was aim at developing a ‘synergetic viewpoint’ between Media and Health to improve the medical education and health facilities in the government-aided hospitals.
He also focused upon benefits of spiritual healthcare and opening up of ‘spiritual clinics’ to deal with the newly-emerging psychosomatic diseases.
Dean, Research, Dr G.S Batra propose vote of thanks.
The MOOCs workshop, first of its kind, explained various details to the prospective resource persons to understand the conceptual framework of making the MOOCs under Government of India’s scheme of ‘reaching the unreachable’ and ‘beyond the classroom’ category of students through digital and e-learning modes, Prof Maan added. Er. Manpreet Singh, Research Officer, EMRC elaborated upon various conceptual and functional aspects of MOOCS through his PPT presentation.
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