Experts Call for Cooperation to Improve Postgraduate Medical Education

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“Postgraduate medical education is critical to the future of health care in Pakistan . To develop the specialists and generalists of the future we must have the training infrastructure in place that will produce the physicians and surgeons we will need,” said Professor Zafarullah Chaudhry, President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan (CPSP) . He was addressing the inaugural session of Aga Khan University 's (AKU) annual Post Graduate Medical Education (PGME) Conference. Based on the work of the previous conferences and reflecting on the evolution of this field in Pakistan , this year's conference focused on the theme of ‘Improving Quality in Postgraduate Medical Education'.

Professor Zafarullah Chaudhry recalled that over the past 25 years, tremendous strides have been made all over the country in postgraduate medical education and the CPSP had provided the benchmark that is applied uniformly on a national level. AKU's PGME programme has pioneered many developments in its structure and quality, including uniform induction criteria, transparent assessment and feedback, and regular quality assurance. He said that the time has come to concentrate on raising the quality of our training programmes so that they can gain international recognition. This will require cooperation from all the physicians in Pakistan .

In his welcome address, Professor Mohammad Khurshid, Dean, Medical College , AKU highlighted the University's contributions towards improving the quality of its PGME programmes. AKU is providing help to institutions in Kenya and other East African countries.

The keynote speaker Dr Charles Leduc from the United Arab Emirates University laid out the principles of quality assurance in postgraduate medical education. He presented practical steps that institutions need to incorporate in their training programmes, in order to ensure high quality of education.

Other speakers included Dr Farhat Abbas, Chief Operating Officer of Aga Khan University Hospital ( AKUH ) ; Professor Mohammad Daud Khan, Vice President, CPSP and Dr Ahmed Badar from Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad.

Dr Abbas highlighted the role of the institutions in providing the infrastructure for high quality medical training and Dr Badar emphasised the role of good scientific writing in PGME. The conference was also addressed by Dr Mughis Sheerani, Chair of the Organising Committee and Dr Nadir Ali Syed, Associate Dean for Postgraduate Medical Education at AKU.

The research paper presentations reflected on the original research carried out by trainee doctors from all over Pakistan as well as poster presentations. The workshops held during the conference were well attended by physicians and related health professionals.

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