FIMA Year Book 2009 - Federation of Islamic Medical Associations

Quality Assurancehighest goals. Achieving these goals waseasier in a time of abundant resourcesand favorable demographics. Theenvironment has changed. Institutionsare facing decreasing enrolments andrevenues while costs and competitionfor students are increasing. Qualityassurance and quality managementhave become an essential part of themanagerial skills in higher education.Quality assurance and quality culture,though an old prerequisite for academicand business attraction, has generatedimmense interest recently with theincreased competition in medicaleducation and market requirements.At present, it is addressed in numerousacademic and trade publications, by themedia, and in training seminars. It isperhaps the most frequently repeatedmantra among managers and executivesin contemporary institutions of higherstudies and excellence. The main ideaof its application in medical educationis persistence and continuous qualityimprovement, consistency of quality,staff (and student) participation,meeting customer needs, coordination,and management procedures whichdetect poor quality and stimulate good,all have a significant contribution tomake to the development of efficientand effective mass higher educationsystems (3) . We must not forget that everyeffort to achieve the quality in Westernsystems was a market demand ratherthan inner motivation of believers as wesee in Islamic way of life.“Who has created death and life thatHe may test you which of you is best indeed And He is the All-Mighty, the Oft-Forgiving”. (4)The purpose of the creation of thehuman being is to achieve excellencein all his deeds irrespective of one’sprofession, status, education or anyother gain. It is clearly stated inthe Qur’an: “Is there any reward forexcellence other than excellence?” (5)These and many other verses in theQur’an clearly emphasize the qualityconcept and its mechanism in all fieldsincluding education.Quality management in medicaleducationQuality control in medical educationis a recently evolving concept, whichunderwent series of changes sinceits inception. A well-planned systemof education aimed at achieving thegoals and objectives set for it and acomprehensive quality infrastructurefor the productive implementation andsystematic evaluation of that system.Medical education has to be of thehighest quality to produce graduatescapable of delivering the highest qualityof medical care by not only satisfyingthe consumers i.e. patients, theirfamilies, community and employersbut even going beyond the expectationsof everyone.To achieve the set goals, severalmechanisms of quality assurancewere adopted such as Total QualityManagement (TQM) or Total QualityControl (TQC) in industry andFIMA YearBook 2009157