The administrations of the medical universities of Sindh, Balochistan, the Punjab, and Islamabad have agreed to develop a uniform standard curriculum for postgraduate training.
The decision was inspired by the American model of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and university residence program.
The Vice-Chancellor of the Rawalpindi Medical University, Professor Muhammad Umar, informed the media that the curriculum will comprise six competencies, which are as follows:
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- Patient Care
- Medical Knowledge
- Professionalism
- Communication Interpersonal Skills
- Practice-based Learning
- System-based Practices
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Students will be given the following weightage for various competencies:
- Patient Care & Medical Knowledge – 40%
- Professionalism – 30%
- System-based Practices & Practice-based Learning – 20%
- Research – 10%
The curriculum will shift the paradigm of postgraduate medical education from exam-oriented to training-oriented. Specialist doctors will be trained continuously over four-year and five-year programs, and 75% weightage will be given to continuous internal assessment rather than examination.
The trainee doctors will work under a supervisor and will receive continuous feedback for improvement.
Dr. Umar said that a workplace-based assessment system will be introduced for Directly Observed Procedures (DOPs) and case-based discussions (CBDs).
While explaining the new curriculum design, he stated that the university residency model is “well-structured, credible and spread over four or five years, depending on the program.”
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The VC announced that each trainee will have to write a research paper every year for a specific journal (resident research journal) that will be published by a resident’s editorial board.
Each trainee will also have to attend mandatory workshops and attend research lectures as specified in the training programs of the UK and the USA. Additionally, 10 percent of research work will be incorporated into the final program.
Professor Umar affirmed that the new model that is based on the ACGME model, and that the university residency program will overcome all the deficiencies in the 100 years old university-based medical education in addition to being on par with the other modern systems that are accepted across the world.
