Friday, October 30, 2009

International Medical Education Day, 22 October 2009

FAIMER International Medical Education (IME) Day this year focused on the interaction between government and health professions education to improve health. Brazil, India, Pakistan, and South Africa were each represented by a pair of individuals – one from government and one from health professions education.

Brazil – Henry Campos, Vice Rector for Government Affairs, Universidad Federal do CearĂ¡, and Ana Estela Haddad, Assistant Secretary for Health Workforce (who unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute due to an inter-ministerial meeting)

India – Abraham Thomas, Director, Christian Medical College at Ludhiana, and Ved Prakash Mishra, Chair of the Academic Cell of the Medical Council of India

Pakistan – Jamsheer Talati, former Associate Dean for Education, Aga Khan University, and Ahmed Nadeem Akbar, Registrar of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council

South Africa – Beth Engelbrecht, Deputy Director General for Health in the Province of the Western Cape, and Wynand van der Merwe, Dean of Stellenbosch University Faculty of Medicine.

I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with the clarity of the output from participants at the meeting. The ideas for greater alignment between government and health professions education were realistic and pragmatic. I hope to have them transcribed and circulated soon.

Many comments were made about the potential exchange of ideas across national borders. The ideas included faculty development systems, integration of training of different types of health workers, involvement of community health workers, alignment of data gathering needs of government with academic research efforts, and many more.

In addition, there will be follow up discussions directly with FAIMER in all four countries. In India, Ved Prakash Mishra and I will be moving forward with actualization of the plan for faculty development announced through his efforts by the Medical Council of India. The current MCI plan involves the CMCL-FAIMER Regional Institute, the GSMC-FAIMER Regional Institute, and the PSG-FAIMER Regional Institute, and we will be working on strengthening those ties. We will also be considering ways to create a stronger connection between MCI and the National Conference on Health Professions Education. In Pakistan, Jamsheer Talati, Nadeem Akbar, and FAIMER Fellows in Pakistan, are starting to build a national faculty develop program. A proposal from the Pakistan FAIMER Fellows that I will be circulating shortly calls for “mobile” workshops, endorsed by FAIMER and PMDC, and presented by Fellows and others. In Brazil, we will be working with Henry Campos on the proposal to offer a qualification to graduates of the Brazil FAIMER Regional Institute. In South Africa, the proposal by Vanessa Burch and her table group for a combination of qualification for graduates of the Southern Africa FAIMER Regional Institute, distance learning, and national symposia will be crystallized and circulated to interested parties in that country.

As IME day demonstrated, our shared mission of improving health through health professions education is more likely to be achieved if we exchange ideas and work together.

About 80 participants from about 15 countries were in the room. Any reactions to the discussions?

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Energy booster

Today was the closing session of the second residential session for FAIMER Institute 2008. People often ask if I am tired at the end of the month of October, after four weeks of residential Institute Fellowship activity. The answer is always, “no.”

I know that projects, on line modules, faculty development programs, regional and international meetings are about to be developed and launched during the next twelve months. Stories of personal growth, professional accomplishments, and local challenges will follow.

The values of appreciation, growth, collaboration, mentoring, and joy are very strong in the FAIMER family and I am confident they will be reflected in news from the FAIMER network over the coming months. These values, and the force they produce, will usually counterbalance the stubborn adherence to tradition that unfortunately permeates many aspects of health professions education around the world. I’m convinced that thoughtful, well planned change will prevail. That’s a pretty good energy booster.

More FAIMER Fellow faces from 2007 batch



Do you remember why Wagdi was standing with his arms crossed (with Ivan laughing in the background)?











Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Remember these FAIMER folks?






Memory test - whose shoe is this?

More pictures coming

Dear Graduates and friends:
When I created the blog, I was working from my home computer with limited access to pictures. I will post more pictures of the PHL FAIMER Institute 2007 batch shortly.
Bill