Improving standards: UHS developing new MBBS curriculum

14 committees of subject specialists will work on it.

LAHORE:

The University of Health Sciences (UHS) is developing a new integrated curriculum for its MBBS programme.

The UHS has constituted 14 committees of subject specialists, headed by senior academicians, to develop the curriculum. The focus is on integrating formal class-room knowledge with clinical experience.

The anatomy committee is headed by Prof Attiya Mubarik, the physiology committee by Prof Hamid Javed Qureshi, the biochemistry committee by Dr Nasreen Sharif, the community medicine committee by Prof Musarrat Ramzan, the pharmacology committee by Prof Muhammad Saeed Anwar, the behavioural sciences committee by Dr Mowadat Hussain Rana, the pathology committee by Dr Ghazala Jaffery, the ENT committee by Prof Najamul Husnain, the eye committee by Prof Nadeem Hafeez Butt, the surgery committee by Prof Mehmood Ayaz, the medicine committee by Prof Sajid Nisar, the gynaecology committee by Dr Sohail K Lodhi, the paediatrics committee by Dr Humayun Iqbal Khan, and the forensic medicine committee by Dr Aamir Bashir. Fifteen educationists are also members of these committees.



The UHS Department of Medical Education on Wednesday organised a three-day training workshop for members of the committees. The workshop was facilitated by Quest International University Perak, Malaysia, Dean Prof Dr Alam Sher Malik.

UHS Pro-VC Dr Junaid S Khan, who inaugurated the workshop, said that the development of the curriculum was the first step towards meeting the World Federation for Medical Education standards for accreditation of the MBBS programme.

“The implementation of an integrated, contextually-relevant curriculum that puts sufficient emphasis on the development of life-long adult learning traits and focuses on experiential learning of skills, attitudes and concepts will require considerable logistics and human resources,” he said.

Dr Junaid said once a contextually-relevant modular curriculum designed to meet the requirements of the Pakistani medical education and healthcare delivery system was available, further plans to build capacity at all institutions across the Punjab could be formulated before implementing the curriculum.

He said that the curriculum would go through necessary approvals from statuary bodies of the UHS before it was implemented.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2015.