The University of Health Sciences (UHS) is organising a five-day international workshop on "Curriculum Development", starting from August 15. The workshop, which has been organised by UHS Medical Education Department, will be facilitated by Professor David A. Cook from the University of Alberta, Canada.
It is a continuation of the process of training of medical faculty in teaching methodology and assessment techniques. Professor Cook is currently serving as Director, Division of Studies in Medical Education, University of Alberta. He has about 200 publications to his credit.
He has given more than 30 presentations on medical education and pharmacological research at the universities of United States, Russia, Australia, Japan and China.
UHS Vice Chancellor Professor Malik H. Mubbashar said the main objective of the workshop was to enable the medical faculty to plan and implement an effective curriculum for the education of future physicians in Pakistan.
Other objectives of the workshop are: developing the ability to assess success and problems with the present curriculum; using the concept of outcome-based education, consideration of inter-professional aspects of healthcare-interactions with nurses, pharmacists, rehabilitation disciplines, pre-hospital care personnel, alternative and traditional healers, etc and defining the roles played by a successful physician.
Besides, understanding structural and logistic limitations-duration of curriculum, availability of postgraduate training, problems of space, time and people and deciding on a suitable compromise between "top-down" and "bottom-up are also included in the objectives.