Swati Piramal initiates course in clinical research at Harvard

Swati Piramal, director of Piramal Healthcare Ltd., has initiated a course in clinical research at the Harvard School of Public Health, a company statement said.

Piramal was elected member of the Harvard Board of Overseers in May this year and is also member of the Board of Dean's Advisors at the school.

She said the online course -- Quantitative Methods in Clinical and Public Health Research -- would begin in October 2012 and would offer a great learning opportunity to physicians in India.

"One of the biggest shortages we have in Indian science is the lack of research curriculum in our medical training," said Piramal, an alumnus of the Harvard School of Public Health.
"India has over 900,000 doctors but few are trained to be physician scientists. This is a
glaring gap in our country," she added.

The curriculum is an online adaptation of the School of Public Health's classes in epidemiology and biostatistics and will be taught by two noted professors -- Earl Francis Cook and Marcello Pagano.

"Providing medical doctors an introduction to the science of quantitative methods can be the first step toward interesting more of our physicians to become top professionals in clinical research and become investigators for clinical trials," said Piramal.