Career options in the Health Sector are many. The guest speaker for this month’s Meeting of Minds session, Mr. Cabral, Managing Partner in Westcoast Shipyard and head of strategy and business development spoke to students about the career options available to them ranging from consulting and investment banking to opportunities as entrepreneurs.

Mr Nigel Cabral

His lecture on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur and how to develop good business plans was backed by his many years of experience in venture capital and consulting. He spoke about the characteristics of entrepreneurs and the importance of strong teams for new ventures to succeed.

Mr. Cabral has over fourteen years of venture capital, industry and consulting experience in transformation & change management, business process redesign, telecom strategy, new product launches and mergers and acquisitions. He has had extensive experience in projects in Europe, America and Asia. A graduate of Bryant College where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Business Management, he has an MBA from London Business School.

CONNECT GOA – Business Plan Competition 2009

The students of Marian Institute of Health Care Management (MIHM) won the 2^nd place at the first pan Goa business plan competition organized by Connect Goa Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. The final round of this competition, the first of its kind in Goa, was held at the Goa International Centre at Dona Paula on 15^th November 2009. The prize winning project proposal to set up a GERIATRIC HOSPITAL AND HOME was developed by Ashwin Furtado, Syam Thomas and Siddharth Cunkolienkar. It covered the developmental, financial, legal, marketing and operational aspects.

Apart from winning the confidence of Mr. Christopher Fogg, a venture capitalist manager for Connect Goa, the team also attracted investment proposals from other well known industrialists and company representatives.

Connect started in San Diego and has assisted 1500 entrepreneurs raise over $10 billion to set up and develop their businesses. Connect Goa sought to identify high potential business proposals by students of institutes in Goa—BITS, GIM, GU, MIHM and PCCE—and support the projects financially and intellectually.

The MIHM Team is looking forward to developing the project over the prescribed timeline of 3 years.

The Team (L-R: Syam, Siddharth, Ashwin)

Elton Pinto (Times Wellness)

On 31^st October 2009, Mr. Elton Pinto, Editorial Coordinator for ‘Times Wellness’ (print and online) Mumbai, spoke about:

• Wellness as a new sector in the health care industry &
• New age media tools used in marketing: websites, forums, blogs, media sharing websites, social networking websites

Mr. Pinto used examples from industry to highlight the potential and power of new age media tools – as beneficial to and detrimental to marketing efforts. He provided insights into how ‘Wellness’ was developing into a robust and promising new sector and the factors that were fuelling this growth.

On 31^st October 2009, Mr. Benzi Alex Mathew - Account Manager, Cognizant Life Sciences, US West Coast, interacted with the faculty and students of MIHM in a highly informative session about the core business drivers in the pharmaceutical industry today.

Mr Benzi Alex Mathew (Cognizant Life Sciences)

He spoke about the role of IT and BPO services at different points of the pharmaceutical value chain and highlighted the need for specialized business analysts who have a thorough understanding of industry specific characteristics and dynamics.

Mr. Benzi Alex Mathew has been part of Cognizant’s Life Sciences practice for close to eight years and some of his current clients include Amgen, Genentech, Roche, Abraxis, Gilead and Elan. He shared his valuable insights about the opportunities for IT and BPO services in pharmaceutical discovery, pre clinical development, clinical development, clinical operations, pharmacovigilance, sales operations, regulatory compliance, validation, IT Processes, HR and security processes.

Clinical Research Organisations (CROs) are growing at a tremendous pace in India and managing clinical trials have become the need of the hour. The Meeting of Minds session on 29th October 2009 was organised around this theme.

Sharing their experience were Dr Ronak Dhanak, Clinical Research Associate (CRA), Pfizer (India) and Ms Lydia Tauro, Clinical Research Associate (CRA), DiagnoSearch Life Sciences Pvt Ltd.

Dr Ronak (Left), Ms Lydia Tauro (Right)

The speakers interacted with the students and faculty at MIHM informing them about:

• Current trends in clinical research
• Recruitment of subjects in trials
• Monitoring of sites
• Data quality management

The speakers also highlighted the importance of managers in this upcoming field and the intricacies of the investigator-sponsor relationship.

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The second event in the ‘War of Words’ series on 12th December, 2008, saw a presentation and panel discussion on ‘Long Term Health Care’.  The students presented information and existing perspectives on Increasing Awareness, Funding & Insurance, Preventive Measures – Environment and Children’s Health, Long term  impact of chemicals, Mental health & care and Ethical Issues in long term health care.

The student panel discussed the data and perspectives presented in an endeavour to formulate a long term healthcare policy for Goa.

Dr. Vijay Naik, Consulting Physician, Manipal Hospital shared his views on the operational aspects of long-term healthcare and his feedback on the presentations and outcome of the panel discussion.

On the 8th and 9th of November, Goa Medical College celebrated 25 years of the existence of their Dept. of Neurosurgery. Two students of the Marian Institute, Glinis Braganza and Lyka Da Costa, attended this event and later shared their experiences with the rest of the class.

The event included speakers mostly eminent neurosurgeons like Dr Vijay Kak, Dr Thimappa Hegde & Dr Tandon (Dean of AIIMS) as well as medico legal expert Dr Gopinath Shenoy, Dr Vina Vaswani MD from Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, and Dr Oscar Rebello.

The topics covered included 

• Medical Ethics past, Present & Future
• End-of-Life Situations, Sharing decisions, caring dignity
• Civil & Criminal Liability of Doctors 
• Euthanasia 
• Progress and Prospects of Neuroscience in India
• Personal Vision
• Death & Dying 
• Latest technology in removal of emboli in the brain
• Communication & the patient doctor relationship

HOSPITAL RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

The third session of “Meeting of Minds” was held on the 22 November 2008, at the Marian Institute of Healthcare Management. The speaker of the day was Mr. Ronald May, Assistant Manager, Marketing Department, Manipal Hospital – Goa.

The discussion was on Relationship Management & its various facets, which included:

• Doctor Personality;
• Clinical Acumen;
• Infrastructure and Systems;
• Legacy; and
• Religious models

The other topics were;

• Effective Strategy planning
• Nurturing Hospital Brands
• Future Business models

He also shared with us a few personal experiences & challenges in the field of hospital marketing.