Reconfiguration of medical education stressed

212 graduates conferred degrees, awarded medals in UHS second convocation

LAHORE

Punjab Higher Education Commission’s (PHEC) Chairman, Prof Dr Mohammad Nizam-ud-Din, has said that medical education should be reconfigured to produce technically competent, socially sensitive, ethically correct and ready-to-serve health professionals who can respond to the diverse demands of country’s growing health needs.

He was addressing the second convocation of University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Thursday.

Prof Nizam-ud-Din said that false hierarchies should be shunned and mutual respect and a sense of shared responsibility should form the basis of effective teamwork. He stressed the need to revise the curriculum so that “doctors are trained to look at health in a truly holistic manner and go beyond a narrow clinical and technology-driven approach”.

A total of 212 graduates were conferred degrees and awarded medals in the convocation, including four PhDs, 134 MPhil, 43 MS, one MSc Medical Technology, one MSc Nursing, two MD, four MDS, and seven Masters in Health Professions Education.

Those who were awarded doctorate degree included Dr Taquayya Sultana Abidi (Anatomy), Dr Nadia Naseem (Morbid Anatomy and Histopathology), Dr Abdul Mannan Babar (Surgery) and Dr Azhar Qayyum (Morbid Anatomy and Histopathology).

Besides, 16 graduates were awarded “Best Graduate Gold Medal” for their exceptional performance in university examinations in various programmes. In Master of Surgery, Mudassar Riaz Khan (Neuro-surgery) and Yasir Iqbal (Orthopeadics); in Master of Dental Surgery, Muhammad Imran Saleh (Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery); in MSc Nursing, Kamran Manawar; in MHPE Nadeem Hafeez Butt; in Pharm-D, Sara Arif; in BSc Allied Health Sciences, Muhammad Ayoub (Session 20110-2014) and Azra Javed (Session 2011-2015) and in BSc Nursing (4-year), Rida Zainab Zafar (Session 2010-2014) and Farzana Bibi (Session 2011-2015) were awarded “Best Graduate Gold Medal”.

The “Hajvery Foundation Gold Medal” for overall best graduate in MPhil Basic Sciences was awarded to Amina Akram of Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore and in MPhil MLS to Madiha Shakoor of University of Health Sciences, Lahore.

For overall best graduate in MBBS, “MH Mubashar Gold Medal” was awarded to Iqra Arshad of Shalimar Medical and Dental College, Lahore (Session 2009-2014) and Hira Saleem of Akhtar Saeed Medical and Dental College, Lahore (Session 2010-2015).

In BDS, Maliha Mumtaz (Session 2010-2014) and Hadia Arshad (Session 2011-2015), both from Margalla Institute of Health Sciences, Rawalpindi, were awarded “BA Yazdani Gold Medal” for best performance.

In his address, UHS Vice-Chancellor Maj-Gen (r) Prof Muhammad Aslam, advised the graduates to have a constructive attitude and think in terms of solutions, not in term of problems. He said that over 75,000 students were registered with the university which was offering more than 100 programmes in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, allied health sciences and nursing. He said the university had 113 publications and more than 1,500 citations in indexed journals during 2015-16.