RACP grant helps Monash doctor join team working to save lives of mothers and babies in India

Dr Pramod Pharande

Congratulations to Monash Children’s Hospital neonatologist, Dr Pramod Pharande on receiving the Eric Burnard Fellowship for his project, "Evaluation of an inter-professional obstetric and neonatal emergency simulation program in India".


This grant from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians' (RACP) will advance Dr Pharande's research in simulation based interdisciplinary life saving education program which will be beneficial for rural regions of India.

In 2016, Monash University researcher and Monash Children’s Hospital neonatologist Dr Atul Malhotra and his team founded the ONE-Sim (obstetric and neonatal emergency simulation) training - an educational program for health workers, medical and nursing students to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes of difficult child birth in India (See Monash story here).  This grant from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians' (RACP) will enable Dr Pharande's team to evaluate the impact of this teaching and skills training in areas where the ONE-Sim program has been running for at least the last 2 years.

Dr Pharande said, "Childbirth can be a very dangerous time for both the mother and baby, especially in the low and middle-income country (LMIC) setting. The two most common causes of death and adverse outcomes at childbirth include postpartum haemorrhage in the mother, and neonatal asphyxia in the infant. There are a number of programs running in many LMICs that focus on either neonatal resuscitation or post partum haemorrhage, but very limited groups/organisations run a combined inter-professional program targeting both the needs of the mother and baby".

Project aims:

1. To do a quantitative objective assessment of skills in health professionals previously exposed to ONE-Sim training. The skills tested will include basic and advanced obstetric emergency management and teamwork skills.
2. To compare this skills assessment to health professionals from the same hospital/ institutions who haven’t participated in ONE-Sim before.

"I am extremely fortunate to be the recipient of this prestigious fellowship.  This research will answer vital questions regarding feasibility, long term knowledge and skills transfer, behaviour change which will ultimately lead to improvement in patient clinical outcomes", said Dr Pharande.