Daijiworld News Network - Mangalore (MB)
Mangalore, Dec 5: The inauguration of the decennial year of the hospital administration course in Fr Muller Medical College was marked by the first event, a workshop of 'Media Relations and Healthcare Organizations'.
College dean Dr Sanjeev Rai welcomed the gathering and stressed the importance of media in the healthcare scenario.
Medical College administrator Fr Denis D'Sa inaugurated the decennial year and unveiled the logo of the year 'Horizon 2007'.
Flavian Quadros, a second-year student, made a presentation on the theme. FMCI administrator Fr William Menezes lit the lamp and inaugurated the workshop on media relations. He said that the media being power, it had to be used correctly, since it had the capacity to make or break.
Rahul Advertisers CEO Titus Noronha was the resource person for the workshop. The points he dwelt upon were as follows:
Healthcare has become very competitive. Publicity is a must in today’s world.
Press is the 4th eye of our democracy. A press release costs today just Rs350.
Healthcare has become a marketable industry, becoming more of a business than a caring sector
Technology has reduced the overall expenditure of the print media / electronic media
Digital prints used to cost Rs 150 per sq ft for billboard printing around 1999, while today it costs just Rs 12 per sq ft
Media and journalism – The news is overhyped. A big issue is made out of nothing. That is the negative side of media and journalism.
The second session was on 'Practical Handling of Press Conferences'. The MHA students acted as management personnel of a particular hospital and were given topics for the press conference and the audience acted as journalists.
The topics given were starting a dentistry colle, the hospital clarifying over a case of medical negligence, launching of a telemedicine wing, starting a customer information system and launching a stress relief programme for medical professionals in the hospital.
Evaluation of each conference gave the students practical experience for improvement. The programme concluded with Titus Noronha providing guidelines on how to handle the media personnel.