State of the Art Dept. of Medical Journalism at UHS likely
to be inaugurated in July 2025
UHS VC Prof. Ahsan Waheed Rathore urges participants of the
course to develop and promote positive thinking
CME Courses at UHS Lahore
LAHORE: Twenty-three candidates from all over the country have been enrolled in the Certificate in Medical Editing (CME) and fourteen have been inducted in the Certificate in Medical Journalism and Editing (CMJE) Batch-3 by University of Health Sciences Lahore. Candidates who cleared CME from Batch-6 and CMJE Batch-2 were also presented certificates in the inaugural session held on April 23rd 2025 by Prof. Ahsan Waheed Rathore Vice Chancellor of UHS Lahore who was the chief guest on this occasion.
Candidates enrolled in CME Batch-7 and CMJE Batch-3 photographed along with Vice Chancellor of UHS Prof. Ahsan Waheed Rathore after the inaugural session held on April 23, 2025. Also seen in the picture are Prof. Nadia Naseem, Pro VC UHS and facilitators Prof. Jamshed Akhtar and Mr. Shaukat Ali Jawaid.
Addressing the participants of the courses, Prof. Ahsan Waheed Rathore in his address called upon them to develop and promote positive thinking. The country is on road to progress and lot of developments are underway at the UHS to further structuring and strengthening various teaching and training programmes including Medical Journalism. Prof. Nadia Naseem has been provided enough funding to realize the establishment of state-of-the-art department of medical journalism at UHS which we will be formally inaugurated and start functioning by July 2025.
These courses, it may be, recalled are being run by the UHS in collaboration with Pakistan Association of Medical Editors (PAME) since 2019. The facilitators include twenty-five distinguished Editors and Researchers from all over Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and a few from Islamic Republic of Iran as well. The objective is to promote the discipline of medical journalism in the country. During these courses apart from presentations by distinguished editors, intensive Hands On exercises are included wherein the participants are taught about principals of scientific writing, initial screening of manuscripts or Editor’s Triage, Plagiarism check, interpretation of similarity index, medical editing, how to do peer review, how to ensure quality in scientific writing and publications, how to prepare reviewers database, how to run a successful journal, Different business models, Journal scientometrics, Indexation, Impact Factor and its importance, different important databases and how to get the journals covered. During the session, they candidates are also asked to design a Peer Review Performa. They are asked to review a manuscript in groups and then make presentations. Too much emphasis is laid on Hands On exercises as this is considered the best way of learning.
Prof. Ahsan Waheed Rathore and Prof. Nadia Naseem Vice Chancellor & Pro-Vice Chancellor respectively of University of Health Sciences photographed alongwith some facilitators and participants of CMJE Course run by UHS in collaboration with PAME.
In the Certificate in Medical Journalism and Editing (CMJE) two facilitators from Punjab University Prof. Noshin and Prof. Hanan also train the participants in Health Journalism, social media and other related aspects and how effectively they can be used. Mr. Waqar an experienced Statistician from UHS Lahore takes care of the statistics part in the course. Both courses are of six months duration with two contact sessions of four days each. In CMJE internship training at medical journal offices is also included in the second contact session.
Prof. Ahsan Waheed Rathore and Prof. Nadia Naseem Vice Chancellor & Pro-Vice Chancellor respectively of University of Health Sciences photographed alongwith some facilitators and participants of CME Courses run by UHS in collaboration with PAME.
The candidates have to complete various assignments and prepare a portfolio as well. There are four tests during the contact sessions of ten marks each while portfolio evaluation has additional marks. The candidates have to appear in Viva as well wherein two external examiners have twenty marks and internal examiner has five marks. The candidates are supposed to earn at least 60% cumulative marks to pass the examination. Each candidate is affiliated with a Mentor to guide and assist them during the course while the Course Advisor and all facilitators are also available 24/7 to the candidates for any help and assistance.
Dept. of Medical Journalism
As regards the department of Medical Journalism being established at the University of Health Sciences, all civil works have been compelled and now furniture and computers are being installed. The department is getting final touches formal inauguration is scheduled in July 2025 when it will become fully functional. Present VC of UHS Prof Ahsan Waheed Rathore is taking keen interest in the development of this department which will be the first of its kind in the country and Prof. Nadia Naseem Pro VC of UHS who is also Editor of BioMedica official journal of UHS has been entrusted the responsibility to get things expedited as soon as possible. UHS, it may be mentioned here is also the second medical university in the WHO EMRO Region after Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran to have started this training programme.
