AMC adopts Google tech for medical education

ABBOTTABAD: Ayub Medical College (AMC), Abbottabad has joined hands with Tech Valley Pakistan to transform into a digital medical school with the help of Google technologies.

A press release said that over a period of 40 years AMC has grown into one of the largest, established, and reputed medical institutions of the country, which has earned a name through alumni.

The first batch of its medical graduates passed out in 1984 and by the end of academic session 2019, about 6850 doctors had graduated from this institution.

With COVID-19 infecting hundreds of thousands, and numerous colleges mandating their students to stay at home, the situation for medical schools has become even more difficult.

This unprecedented situation has left medical students across the country wondering how this will

affect the current and future of their medical studies.To overcome the persistent challenges and to incorporate the distance learning environment in the institution, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between AMC and Tech Valley Pakistan on Monday to integrate Google technologies in their institution.

For this purpose, the IT staff and teachers will be trained and certified by Tech Valley Pakistan as Google Certified Educators. Prof. Dr. Umar Farooq, Dean of AMC, while signing the MoU, said: “This is one of the most tremendous achievement for our college to partner up with Google and Tech Valley Pakistan in terms of providing a digital infrastructure at our premises and we hope this is just a start for a long-standing partnership with Google to bring more digital opportunities and specified tools for our students and faculty members providing assistance in not only the distance learning but also in different medical technicalities and problems”.

Tech Valley Pakistan being the official partner of Google for Education in Pakistan will oversee the successful deployment of Google tools & technologies at the Ayub Medical College. This will be among the first steps towards digitization under the vision of Prime Minister’s Digital Pakistan, where Tech Valley Pakistan will digitally equip one of the leading medical colleges of Pakistan with the help of Google tools and technologies.

Umar Farooq, CEO Tech Valley Pakistan, said: “Deploying Google for Education in a prestigious medical school like AMC will be a huge accomplishment for our team.

This will be the first medical college that will adopt Google for education technology for distance learning in Pakistan and we hope to go above and beyond to provide the best possible solution to the college’s faculty and IT staff, he added.

The MC is a public medical institute located in Abbottabad. It is one of the medical colleges affiliated to Khyber Medical University. AMC is home to 1,500 students in the MBBS and BDS programs, with clinical rotations at the Ayub Teaching Hospital.

Tech Valley Pakistan is a digitally enhanced social enterprise that was founded in 2015 in response to the void of leading tech companies.

It now aims to digitize the major systems and foundations along with helping people build successful businesses by working mainly in the domains of entrepreneurship, capacity building, education, government engagements, technology and tourism.