A three-day international conference organized by Khyber Medical University (KMU) on Medical Education and Research at Khyber Medical College, Peshawar concluded.
The theme of the conference was integration leading to excellence. More than 300 medical educationists, medical experts, researchers and faculty from within the country and abroad attended the conference.
The conference was started on Apirl 18 with pre-conference workshops. These workshops were conducted in two separate morning and evening sessions on different topics.
On the second day formal inauguration ceremony was held at KMC, Peshawar, where provincial minister Shoukat Ali Yousafzai inaugurated the conference as chief guest.
In the conference six parallel and three plenary sessions were held. In the parallel and plenary sessions there were almost 36 papers were presented respectively.
A poster competition was also the part of the conference in which five posters were displayed.
On the last day a formal concluding ceremony was held at KMC. Former VC KMU Prof. Dr. Mohammad Daud Khan was the chief guest while renowned physician Prof. Dr. Nasir Uddin Azam Khan was the guest of honor.
Former VC KMU and renowned ophthalmologist Prof Dr Mohammad Daud Khan while talking to the concluding session said that present system of medical education in Pakistan is the one which has its roots in the colonial era.
He said, although, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has chalked out the outlines of our medical curriculum, yet the irony of fact is that most of the faculty members involved in teaching are not aware of its existence. Hence, teaching is carried out accordingly. Moreover, the course outlines are vague, not clearly defined, resulting in the ambiguity of the situation.
Professor Daud highlighted that there are recurrent historical examples of programs that were appropriate for that time but are now out of date because needs and curriculum concepts have changed.
He said in the traditional system of medical education, students are not actively involved in their pursuit of knowledge; rather they have to depend on their teacher who plays a pivotal role in the building up of a health team.
Prof. Nasiruddin Azam Khan while talking to the conference said that Medical Education, in general, is different from orthodox education, in terms of technicality and application.
He said in a new curriculum, based on findings from cognitive psychology, learners should be stimulated to construct their own knowledge within contexts of problem-solving situations.
He said due to lack of research credentials, the intellectual level of Pakistan doctors is lagging far behind from medical graduates of other countries, so we should give full attention to this neglected aspect of medical education.
While speaking to the concluding session VC KMU Prof. Dr. Mohammad Hafizullah thanked and congratulated the participants, organizers, oral and posters presenters and especially those experts who were attended the conference from abroad and other parts of the country for three consecutive days with full zeal and enthusiasm.
Prof Hafizullah paid his special tribute to Prof. Dr. Gohar Wajid, Dr. Idrees Anwar, Dr. Sahibzada Mehmood Noor, Dr. Shahid Ayub, Dr. Ijaz Hassan Khattak, Dr. Rehan, Dr. Shila Pinjani, Dr. Abid Jamil, Dr. Tariq Saeed Mufti and Dr. Brekhan Jamil for their tiring struggle to organize such a successful conference.
He said that after return from abroad two Ph.D scholars, KMU would start Ph.D program in Health Profession Education (HPE) and a medical research journal would also be launched in the upcoming weeks.
He elaborated that KMU is the second medical university of the country where master and certificate programs in HPE being thought, which is an honor and pleasure for us and from these courses so far more than 200 health professions have been passed out.
At the end chief guest distributed certificates among the papers and posters presenters and organizers while VC KMU presented souvenirs to the guests.
Source: The Frontier Post.
