Postgraduate Medical Education Graduation Ceremony

Professor M. Hayat Zafar, Professor Emeritus, President of Pakistan Medical Dental Council, was the chief guest at the annual graduation ceremony for fellows, residents and interns of the University's Department of Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME).

PGME Residents with AKU senior leadership and faculty.

To date, AKU has graduated 1167 young men and women from its internship, residency and fellowship programmes in over 30 different medical specialities. AKU PGME graduates have exerted a strong influence over health care delivery in Pakistan over a relatively short period of time. Sixty-eight percent of these are working in Pakistan, even in such remote areas as Gilgit and Chitral. Several of those are also senior faculty members at the University - over 40% of the entire clinical faculty at AKU comprises of PGME graduates.

This year 45 interns were awarded certificates for completing their internship programme. In addition, 38 residents and seven fellows received certificates for completion of speciality training in several clinical disciplines. The disciplines include Anaesthesia, Community Medicine, Diagnostic Radiology, Family Medicine, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Orthopaedic Surgery, Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, Paediatrics and Pathology. In 2003, residency training programmes in Orthodontics and Plastic Surgery and fellowship programmes in Medical Oncology, Cardio-thoracic Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Urology were also introduced.

PGME Interns with AKU senior leadership and faculty.

Congratulating the graduates and their parents, Professor Zafar said it was a matter of pride and great satisfaction that AKU had earned international repute and recognition in a short span of time. He urged the graduates to try their best to live their lives and carry out their work on the basis of ethics and morality. ".AKU and all our medical colleges and universities educate their postgraduates not only in clinical competence but also to become academic leaders, dedicated teachers, researchers and specialists for Pakistan. So as you race towards economic success, keep your social responsibility also in mind," he said.

Felicitating the graduates on successful completion of their rigorous years at the University's PGME programme, Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, President, AKU, highlighted the new initiatives taken by the University, specially the establishment of AKU-Examination Board, as well as ongoing programmes such as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Institute for Human Development. He said the University has expanded geographically and programmatically, and was in the process of getting accreditation for establishing a permanent presence principally in East Africa: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zanzibar. He also mentioned the University's plans of starting the PGME programme in East Africa.

PGME Fellows with AKU senior leadership and faculty.

In his address, the Dean of Medical College, Dr. Mohammad Khurshid, said that the University is committed towards its postgraduate programmes, and towards the need for building lasting beneficial relationships between the graduates and the alma mater.

Dr. Farhat Abbas, Associate Dean, PGME, said, "Today is a day when we honour our graduating interns, residents and fellows, and welcome the incoming batch of trainees, who have been selected following a tough competition amongst more that 1,200 applicants." Highlighting the significance of the PGME programme, Dr. Abbas stressed that "The vision and mission of AKU, as guided by the Chancellor, His Highness, is to set the highest standards possible, whether in teaching, research or service, in order to serve the needs of the developing countries. The goal of postgraduate medical education at AKU is to train not just competent, skilled physicians, academic leaders, teachers and researchers for Pakistan but also generalists and specialists who are humane, empathic to the patients and are above all, ethical and moral in their conduct."