Medical education moot tomorrow

LAHORE
THE University of Health Sciences (UHS) is organising a three-day international conference on medical education which will start here tomorrow (Thursday).
According to a press release issued here on Tuesday, the title of the conference is “Integrated Curriculum for an Un-integrated Practice”, and it is being organised in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP), Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC), Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC) and Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF). The three-day moot is endorsed by the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) and Institute of Advanced Dental Sciences and Research (IADSR).
More than 500 health professionals, educationists, healthcare delivery providers, policy makers, medical students and allied health specialists will attend the conference, including some of the world authorities in medical education from United Kingdom, United States of America, Ireland, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The scientific programme of the conference comprises 37 pre-conference workshops at different public and private sector medical and dental colleges, four conference workshops, keynote addresses, plenary presentations, oral presentations, hands-on training sessions, and poster presentations. The programme has been divided into seven sessions.
The topics which will come under discussion, including curriculum development, assessment and professionalism, educational environment, standardisation of learning outcomes, designing and managing postgraduate medical education, integrating ethics in medical education, team-based learning, qualitative research and financial management of health professionals.
The foreign keynote speakers of the conference include Dr Ara Tekian, College of Medicine, University of Illinois, USA; Dr John J. Norcini, President and CEO, Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), USA; Dr John R. Boulet, Vice-President FAIMER, USA; Dr Madawa Chandratilake, University of Dundee, UK; Dr David Taylor, School of Medicine, University of Liverpool, UK; Dr Vikram Jha, Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, UK; Dr Kay Mohanna, Director of Postgraduate Studies, Keele University School of Medicine, UK; Dr Gominda Ponnamperuma, Medical Education Development and Research Centre, Colombo, Sri Lanka; Dr Gohar Wajid, University of Dammam, Saudi Arabia, Dr Alam Sher Malik, Quest International University, Malaysia; Dr Shane Knox, National Ambulance College, Dublin, Ireland and Dr Gerard Bury, University College Dublin, Ireland.
Conference Organising Secretary, UHS Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof Junaid Sarfraz Khan said that the objective of this moot was an exchange of research and experience in the area of curriculum, its development, implementation, review and evaluation in the light of changing global accreditation criteria.
“The conference will encourage collaborative linkages and moving towards an integrated curriculum approach”, he added.
Prof Junaid further said that the conference with its theme, “Is seamless transition from education to practice really possible?”, would help in bringing the global perspective regarding the subject together that shall be looked at within the local context to suggest a way forward for curriculum reforms in Pakistan.
He pointed out that recent attempts in implementing integrated curricula in developing countries had faced a number of challenges, including lack of awareness amongst the stakeholders regarding the matter and the subject, inability to provide contextually relevant evidence in support for the change, poor or non-existent faculty development initiatives and absence of feedback from stakeholders, amongst others.
He added that it was the second international conference being organised by the university from the platform of Council for Collaboration in Medical Education (CCME).