Need and opportunities for health management education in India

Public Health Management has taken a momentous leap and seeks to provide a plausible answer to many issues related to public health. A key area identified to aid the public health objectives in the country is human resource management. The country faces a dire crunch in the available work force in almost all the healthcare network. Countering the current health situation in the country, various institutes have come up offering specialized courses in public health management. The wide gap between supply and demand for trained health care managers/ administrators to work for hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, health insurance and third party administration and other health care provider organizations needs attention. The paper is a situational analysis of all such courses offered pan India. A systematic, predefined approach was used to collect and assemble the data. All the institutes offering such courses were contacted for detailed information. Fifty one institutes have been identified which annually produce around 2122 qualified professional to work in the domain of public health management. The paper also discusses the demand analysis where these prospective students can be placed. An estimated 19,930 professionals would be required based upon the country's present status, which reflects the dearth in their workforce capacity. The paper also enlighten the scope of strengthening the existing system, by effectively training the existing workforce for their capacity building, and highlights training opportunities for working professional to pursue a related academic program.