6th International Conference on Medical Education 2019 concludes

Islamabad : The 6th International Conference on Medical Education 2019 concluded here on Tuesday at Pak-China Friendship Centre.

Lt Gen Khawar Rehman, AMC - surgeon general/director general, Medical Services was the chief guest of the ceremony. He appreciated the contribution of Riphah International University in Medical Education. He said he missed this conference but he would definitely attend the next conference with his team in Indonesia.

Chancellor of Riphah University and Founder of ICME, Hassan Muhammad Khan and Vice Chancellor Riphah University Prof. Dr. Anis Ahmed thanked the dignitaries and delegates in their addresses.

Hassan Muhammad Khan said that he was delighted to see that Riphah’s efforts to establish a credible platform for interaction between world leading medical educationalists and those from countries on the path of introducing reforms in medical education in the region, has resulted in such a prestigious gathering of world leading experts in Islamabad, as a unique opportunity to identify and adopt international standards and to apply them across the region.

The event was organised by Riphah International University with the partnership of the prestigious medical institutions of Pakistan and Higher Education Commission of Pakistan as patron of the conference. The event is the largest ever gathering in Pakistan in the field of medical education. Over 800 medical educationists and foreign delegates from more than eight countries spanning from USA, UK Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Netherlands were present at the conference.

The ICME Conference has become synonymous with the state of the art in the assessment of competence in medicine and the healthcare professions, bringing together both experts and those new to the area, facilitating networking and international collaboration. International Conference on Medical Education (ICME) is a biennially event started in 2009. The conference covers all aspects of Medical Education, it particularly emphasises Health Profession Education in order to provide an opportunity to identify international standards and to apply these in developing countries in local context.

The programme comprised of two days of pre-conference courses and workshops and two days of oral and poster presentations. The conference was enriched with nine keynote speakers, of whom two are winners of the most prestigious Kerolinska Prize on Research in Medical Education, one is the first winner of Ian Hart award and one is a Nobel Laureate. The conference is accredited by EACCME - European Accreditation Council on CME.

International Conference on Medical Education that was established by Riphah International University in 2009 in a bid to introduce and promote reforms in Health Profession Education, more specifically in Medical Education which were long awaited in Pakistan and neighboring developing countries. First conference was held in Islamabad under the patronage of Ministry of Health, Pakistan Medical & Dental Council, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan.

This was followed by ICMEs in UAE (2010), Mauritius in (2013), Istanbul (2015) and UAE (2018). Throughout the conference enjoyed full support from Association for Medical Education in Europe and other similar bodies in USA. During this period lot of progress in Medical Education has been made in Pakistan. These include introduction of integrated medical curriculum, introduction of Postgraduate courses in health profession education, development of standards for medical institutions and faculty training programmes. Organisers of ICME felt that time has come to address more thorny issues in medical education e.g., admission criteria, assessment and inter-professional education. With this background it was decided that next ICME shall again be organized in Pakistan.

Chancellor Riphah International University Hassan Muhammad Khan was presented by a souvenir from Surgeon General. Chairman Organising Committee of ICME Maj. Gen (r) Prof. Masood Anwar gave vote of thanks.

On this occasion, 7th International Conference on Medical Education was announced, which will be held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. For that conference, MoU was signed between Riphah International University and Faculty of Medicine Universitas Islam, Indonesia. MoU was singed by Prof. Dr. Anis Ahmead, Vice Chancellor Riphah International University and Dr. Linda Rosita, Dean of Faculty of Medicine Universitas Islam, Indonesia.