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HEC to focus on research in Medical Sciences
ISLAMABAD (APP) - Higher Education Commission (HEC) convened a meeting on Research in Medical Sciences
here to identify the issues, key areas of promotion of research in medical
sciences.
Representatives of medical universities and Pakistan Medical and
Dental Council attended the brainstorming session and made suggestions on the
proposals received by the experts to enhance medical research in the
country.
The experts said there is urgent need to realize the dearth of
meaningful medical research and take steps to create an environment conducive to
research.
They stressed the need for catering to the shortage of qualified
staff by hiring them from abroad, under HEC Foreign Faculty Hiring Programme
(FFHP) and Pakistan Organization of Collaborative Research (POCR) and to
establish inter-disciplinary and inter-departmental collaborative research in
the country's medical institutes and universities.
The meeting also
discussed in detail the necessity to introduce continuous professional
development of the professionals and clinicians while proposing establishment of
a core Medical Council for promotion of research in universities.
To
encourage research in the medical field it was suggested that research project
should be mandatory at undergraduate level and there should be strict to
research ethics.
There was a consensus that PhD degree be a requirement for
the promotion of Associate Professor and Professor in Basic and Medical
Universities and Institutions.
The experts agreed that video conferencing,
digital library and Virtual University Programmes are the best tools to
facilitate research and medical researchers and clinicians should be encouraged
to benefit from these tools.
The meeting was chaired by Dr. S. Sohail H.
Naqvi Executive Director, Higher Education Commission and attended by Prof. Dr.
Altaf Ali G. Sheikh Advisor (R&D) HEC, M. Shaukat Khan Director (R&D)
HEC, Prof. Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad Malik Focal Person (Medical Sciences), Dr. Tazeen
H Jafar Chair, Faculty of Health Sciences Research Committee, Associate
Professor, Medicine & Community Health Sciences Aga Khan University,
Karachi, Dr. Khadija Irfan Assistant Professor, Service Institute of Medical
Sciences(SIMS).
Service Hospital Lahore, Dr. Asad Zaheer, Head Department of
Planning & Development, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Dr. Munawar
Alam Ansari Associate Professor & In-charge Liaquat University of Medical
& health Sciences, Jamshoro, Dr. Nazeer Khan, Professor of Bio-Statistics,
Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Dr. Sina Aziz Associate Professor of
Pediatrics & Deputy Director, Sarwar Zubari Liver Centre Dow Medical College
Civil Hospital, Karachi, Prof. Syed Muhammad Awais Professor of
Orthopaedic/Pro-Vice-Chancellor, King Edward Medical University, Lahore, Prof.
Kamran Aziz Staff President, King Edward Medical University, Lahore,Dr. Hasham
Khan Assistant Professor and Head Department of Paedodontics, Khyber College of
Dentistry, Peshawar, Prof. Dr. Shamim Akhtar Head Department of Periodontology,
Khyber College of Dentistry, Peshawar, Maj. Gen. Muhammad Aslam Professor of
Physiology, Army Medical College Rawalpindi, and Muhammad Masoom Kassi Senior
Lecturer in Pathology, Bolan Medical College, Quetta.
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