Structured training programme for undergraduates, postgraduates initiated at UHS and Dept. of Medical Journalism is also being established- Ahsan Waheed Rathore
6th PAME National Conference on Medical Journals
From Our Correspondent
LAHORE: Medical Journalism has a bright future in Pakistan but we still need to further improve the quality of Research and Publications. This was stated by Kh. Salman Rafique Punjab Health Minister while speaking in the inaugural session of 6th Pakistan Association of Medical Editors (PAME) National Conference held at the University of Health Sciences on October 21st 2024. Enhancing the Quality of Medial Journalism in the Region was the Theme of the Conference. It was largely attended by healthcare professionals and faculty members besides editors of biomedical journals published from Pakistan.
Kh. Salman Rafique Punjab Health Minister speaking at the inaugural session of 6th PAME National Conference held at UHS on October 21st 2024. Sitting on the dais from (L to R) are Prof. Mahwish Arooj, Dr. Naveed, Prof. Ahsan Waheed Rathore VC UHS, Prof. Khalid Masood Gondal VC FJMU, Prof. Mahmood Ayaz VC KEMU and Prof. S.H. Waqar President PAME.
Vice Chancellor of Fatima Jinnah Medical Univesity Prof. Khalid Masood Gondal who is also Chairman of the Journals Committee of Pakistan Medical & Dental Council, Prof. Mahmood Ayaz Vice Chancellor of King Edward Medical Univesity, Prof. Mahwish Arooj Principal of University College of Medicine and Dentistry from University of Lahore besides Mr. Naveed Asghar representative from WHO office in Pakistan also graced the occasion with their presence.
The inaugural session started with the Video message from Prof. Farhad Handjani President of EMAME who highlighted the efforts being made by EMAME to improve the standard of medical journalism in the region and commended the contributions of PAME for its activities to build professional capabilities of the editors producing the human resource through training courses.
Prof. Ahsan Waheed Rathore Vice Chancellor University of Health Sciences presenting a Memento to Kh. Salman Rafique Punjab Health Minister who was the chief guest at the inaugural session of PAMECON held at UHS on October 21st 2024. Also seen in the picture are Prof. Mahwish Arooj, Dr. Naveed, Prof. Khalid Masood Gondal, Prof. Mahmood Ayaz and Prof. S.H. Waqar President PAME.
In his address Kh. Salman Rafique further stated that medical journalism plays a vital role in designing and planning of health policy of the country. However it is essential that medical journals enhance their credibility, transparency in publications, uphold professional ethics and constantly try to improve their standard. Though a few journals from Pakistan have achieved Impact Factor but most of the journals were still struggling to enhance and improve their standard. He commended the efforts being made by University of Health Sciences to enhance the professional capabilities of editors through training courses.
Prof.Ahsan Waheed Rathore Vice Chancellor of UHS speaking on the occasion highlighted the achievements and accomplishments of the UHS during the last few years. Structured training programme for undergraduates as well as postgraduates has been started, M. Phil and PhD programmes are now full time and all efforts are being made to provide help and assistance to the faculty. Research has now been made an integral part of these training programmes, he added. A department of Medical Journalism is also being established at the university and hopefully in the next few months, steps will be taken to realize this dream so that the candidates of Certificate in Medical Editing as well as Advance Course of CME do not have to go to Karachi for internship. In house training facilities will be made available once the department becomes fully functional after proper staff has been selected and the department is equipped ensuring all the facilities from submission to publication are available in house and there is no need for outsourcing of any aspect. He hoped that Biomedica the official journal of UHS will soon become one of the best journals and also one day achieve Impact Factor. We have over one hundred seventy affiliated medical and dental institutions and a large number of faculty. If each of the faculty member prepares and submits one research paper we will have too many papers for publication, he remarked.
Prof. Khalid Masood Gondal Vice Chancellor of Fatima Jinnah Medical University in his address highlighted the importance of technology and pointed out that though there is lot of talk about the use of Artificial Intelligence in research and publications but it won’t replace the physicians. However, those healthcare professionals who know how to use AI will definitely replace other healthcare professionals. Hence only those healthcare professionals will be successful who know how to use these technologies and can use it effectively.
Punjab Health Minister Kh. Salman Rafique presenting mementoes to Dr. Naveed representative from WHO office Pakistan, Prof. Mahwish Arooj Principal UCMD, Prof. Mahmood Ayaz VC KEMU and Prof. S.H. Waqar President PAME at the inaugural session of PAMCON 2024 held at UHS on October 21st 2024.
Prof. Mahmood Ayaz Vice Chancellor of King Edward Medical University speaking at the occasion pointed out that the fruits of research should reach the common man and we must try to find indigenous cost effective solutions to our health problems. Just publication of research was not enough. We have lot of data and our researches should concentrate on finding solutions to our own health problems which include Dengue, Tuberculosis, Malaria and many communicable diseases.
Earlier Prof.Nadia Naseem Pro VC of UHS and Chairman of the Organizing Committee who is also focal person for CME programmes shared the details of CME and Diploma in Medical Journalism started by UHS. She pointed out that so far six batches of CME and two batches of Advance Course have qualified and one hundred eighty five faculty members, editors, healthcare professionals have been trained. The university has produced the much needed human resource which has played a vital role in improving the quality and standard of medical journalism and biomedical journals published from Pakistan. Before the start of this programme by UHS, there were only three medical journals which enjoyed Impact Factor and their number has now increased to twelve.
Kh. Salman Rafique who was the chief guest at the 6th PAME National Conference on Medical Journals held at UHS on October 21st 2024 presenting a memento to Prof. Khalid Masood Gondal Chairman Journals Committee of PM&DC in the inaugural session.
This course was initiated in 2019 for which Prof. Major Gen.M.Aslam former VC UHS, Prof. Javed Akram another former VC of the University and current Vice Chancellor Prof.Ahsan Waheed Rathore have played an important role. Mr. Shaukat Ali Jawaid and his other colleagues in PAME have been a source of great strength to the university. To conduct high quality research, publish high standard medical journal ensuring quality, transparency and upholding publication ethics is a challenge. UHS is doing its best to train the healthcare professionals in research and medical editing for which the university administration has provided all the needed help and assistance.
However, it will take some time to realize our dream when the department becomes fully functional, she remarked. The session was moderated by Prof. Irum Manzoor. Later the Chief Guest presented the Mementoes to the Vice Chancellors of FJMU, KEMU, President PAME Prof. S.H.Waqar, representative from WHO office Dr. Naveed and Prof. Mahwish Arooj Principal of University College of Medicine and Dentistry from University of Lahore. Prof. S.H. Waqar President PAME presented vote of thanks.
The conference started with an early morning thematic session on Enhancing Quality of Medical Journalism. It consisted of a panel discussion on the Challenges faced by newly recognized medical journals which was moderated by Prof. Saira Afzal Editor of Annals of KEMU. The panelists included Prof. Mariyah Hidayat Editor of Journal of University College of Medicine and Dentistry from University of Lahore, Prof. Adeela Shahid Editor of Shalamar Medical & Dental College and Prof. Ghulam Mustafa Editor Journal of Shaikh Zayed Medical College Rahim Yar Khan. The second session was dedicated to Prof. Muhammad Aslam co-chaired by Prof. Tayyiba Waseem Editor of Esculapio official journal of Services Institute of Medical Sciences. The speakers in this session included Prof. M. Aslam, Dr. Fatema Jawad, Mr. Shaukat Ali Jawaid, Prof. Jamshed Akhtar, Prof. Akhtar Sherin, and Dr. Masood Jawaid. The topics discussed included Social Media, Data Analysis and Artificial Intelligence, Falling standards of Publication Ethics, Expectations and Challenges faced by PM&DC Journals Committee, issues with Preprint publications, Scientometrics, use of Artificial Intelligence and other technologies in medical journalism.
Punjab Health Minister Kh. Salman Rafique presenting mementoes to Prof. Nadia Naseem Pro VC UHS who was the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of 6th PAME National Conference.
Prof. Khalid Khan an eminent researcher, former Editor of British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at present faculty member at University of Granada Spain was the keynote speaker in the inaugural session who spoke on “Responsible Medical Research and Publications. Prof. Irfan spoke on New Knowledge Dissemination behind the paywall versus Open Access Journals.
One of the sessions was dedicated to Mr.Shaukat Ali Jawaid Secretary EMAME. It was co-chaired by Prof. Soufia Farrukh Principal Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Sahibzada Nasir Mansoor from Combined Military Hospital Peshawar and Dr. Haris Editor of Journal of Khyber Medical Univesity. Speakers in this session who all made their presentations through Video recorded included Prof. M.B.Rokni who discussed “ Can Artificial Intelligence Platform replace an Editor”, Dr. Behrooz Astaneh whose presentations was on “Evidence Based Medical Journalism: Time to Move”. Former President of World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Dr. Farrokh Habibzadeh from Shiraz Iran discussed “The Credibility of articles published in Scientific Journals”. Another former President of WAME Prof. Peush Sahni from New Delhi India discussed issues related to Medical Journals and Publishers. James Ayodele Editor of Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal discussed “What journal editors look for in a manuscript.” Dr. Naeema Al Qasseer from Bahrain was the sixth speaker in this session who spoke on state of Medical Journalism in Bahrain. Detailed reports about these presentations to follow.
Post lunch session was dedicated to Dr. Fatema Jawad who chaired this session. The speakers included Prof.Anwar Siddiqui from JPMA, Prof. Nazeer Khan from Baqai Medical Univesity who is also Secretary of PAME. A number of free papers were also presented in the last session and the best two presentations one from KEMU and the other from JPMA were presented awards. A number of posters were also on display during the conference which were judged by a panel of experts.
General Body Meeting
PAME General Body meeting was held a day earlier on Sunday October 20th chaired by Prof. S.H.Waqar which discussed a number of issues. It was followed by Faculty dinner where apart from Prof. Ahsan Waheed Rathore Vice Chancellor of UHS, Prof. Khalid Masood Gondal Chairman of PM&DC Journals Evaluation and Recognition Committee was the chief guest. Prof. Asghar Naqi Principal Allama Iqbal Medical College, a number of distinguished faculty members from different medical institutions from Lahore, Editors of various medical journals were present. Prof.Ahsan Waheed Rathore speaking at this occasion highlighted the various initiatives UHS has taken to strengthen the teaching and training programmes. M.Phil. and PhD programmes he particularly mentioned are now full time courses and the candidates have to complete M. Phil in two years and PhD in three years’ time. They can get two six months extensions and not beyond that hence they must compete their programme during the training session. He also mentioned that now only medical graduates are being enrolled in M.Phil. and PhD programmes by the university and their training programme has also been structured. Training of nurses is also getting due attention.
M/s Atco Laboratories friend of PAME not only arranged the conference folders for the participants but also sponsored the faculty dinner. Another old friend of PAME M/s PharmEvo which has always helped in promotion of medical journalism in Pakistan by sponsoring workshops and training sessions sponsored inaugural tea, Lunch and evening tea on the conference day. PAME is extremely grateful to them for their valuable help and assistance which made the conference a great success. Prof. Nadia Naseem and her team at UHS including Dr. Maham Javed, Mr. Hasan, Prof. Saira Afzal, Prof. Tayyiba Waseem, Prof. Adeela Shahid, Prof. Mariyah Hidayat, Prof, Irum Manzoor and many others also contributed a great deal in the organization of the conference. A record number of pre-conference workshops were organized in different medical institutions of Lahore as well as online. The scientific committee headed by Prof. Jamshed Akhtar had prepared an excellent scientific programme in which many speakers from overseas also participated through video presentations.
Post Conference Session at UOL
A special post conference session was organized at University of Lahore on October 22nd 2024 which apart from the presentations by noted editors included panel discussion moderated by Prof. Mariya Hidayat which was the most important part of this session. The panelists included Prof. Nadia Naseem, Prof. Saira Afzal, Prof. Gulfrin Waheed, Prof. Tayyiba Waseem, Prof. Farhat Ijaz and Prof. Adeela Shahid and Prof. Iqbal Director ORIC at UOL. It aroused lot of interest and lively discussion. Detailed report to follow. Prof. Mahwish Arooj Principal University College of Medicine and Dentistry at UOL also hosted dinner in honour of the faculty on October 22nd.
