Regional
Monday, May
10, 2004
Aga Khan University to Start Postgraduate
Medical Training
By A CORRESPONDENT
THE EASTAFRICAN
FOLLOWING APPROVAL by the
Commission for Higher Education and the Medical Practitioners and Dentists
Board in Kenya, the Aga Khan University will commence postgraduate medical
education (PGME) at the Aga Khan Hospitals in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
Doctors with two years' clinical
experience will be invited to apply for places at the university to study
medicine, surgery, family medicine and radiology. Other disciplines will
be introduced in the following academic year.
Dr Mushtaq Ahmed, a former
chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Aga Khan University Medical
College in Karachi, has been appointed the associate dean for medical education
in East Africa. He is a general surgeon with a great interest in medical
education. He developed highly successful educational programmes for the
Department of Surgery in Karachi.
The director of the postgraduate
medical education programme is Dr Jeff Rees, professor of radiology at
the Aga Khan University. He is a graduate of Edinburgh University Medical
School and the postgraduate training programme in Diagnostic Radiology.
For the past 10 years, Dr Rees has carried out international work in radiology
and postgraduate medical education in countries as far afield as Bermuda,
Ethiopia and Pakistan.
The curriculum and training
will provide relevant experience and learning for doctors and surgeons
working in Africa. The objective of the university is to develop specialists
in various fields of medicine who will make a significant contribution
to the improvement of health systems in their own countries.
The postgraduate students
at the Aga Khan University will undergo intensive training under close
supervision at the Aga Khan Hospitals in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
This will provide them with
the necessary knowledge and skills required prior to entering a further
two years of work experience mandated by law for registration of specialists.
After the completion of the
four years of presented teaching and examination, the university will confer
a Master of Medicine (MMed) degree on the graduates.
It is expected that they
will become specialists in their respective fields of medicine and contribute
to the development of health care and health systems in the region.
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