The network - Towards Unity For Health

Fathi Maklady | Vice President forpost-graduate and research, Suez CanalUniversity, Egypt:Dear Dr Ghanim,You raised the very important question -and also concern - why we are so late in theregion to adapt innovation in our medicalschools, though we started early in this direction(not only that, but we contributed inthe wave of innovation world-wide, mainlySuez Canal and Gazeira medical schools).In my opinion there are three main reasons:• The lack of the political commitment atthe level of the Ministry of Higher Education.We at Suez Canal Universityfought to spread the idea: tens of workshopsand site visits et cetera, with littlesuccess. Five years ago, the Governmentwanted to innovate higher education inEgypt through its national project; thereis now a strong movement, and alsoachievements as revising curricula, improvingteaching skills, changing studentassessment, programme evaluation,and working hard towards accreditationaccording to international and regionalstandards (I should not undermine herethe efforts done by WHO in that respect).• The commitment of the medical school’sleadership. When the Dean and his associatewere convinced of - and dedicatedto - innovation, there were a substantialnumber of changes in that direction.Unfortunately, the system collapsed insome of those schools after the leadershipleft, because of the lack of institutionalisationof the system.I BELIEVE THATSUSTAINABLETRAINING ANDWORKSHOPSWOULD YIELDCHANGE IN THELONG RUN.Amany Refaat | Professor, Department ofCommunity Medicine, Faculty of Medicine,Suez Canal University, Egypt:Dear Profs. Fathi and Ghanem,Allow me to be optimistic - as usual - andlook at the glass as half full. Let me summarisemy point of view as followed:• The number of innovative health professionaleducational institutions is increasingall over the world; however, the majorityof these are the newly establishedones. I am sure that the numbers in theEMR increased as well. If we kept our expectationof radical changes to oldschools, we will be truly disappointed.• I believe that sustainable training andworkshops would yield change in thelong run. Therefore, I assume the manyworkshops and courses that were conductedthroughout the previous two decadesresulted in the current changes inthe region. However, they are not meetingour hopes yet.It is with pleasure that we would like toinform you that the following Full Memberhas been awarded (a continuation ofits) Full Membership:Up to 2013:Master of Health ProfessionsEducation, Maastricht University,Maastricht, the Netherlands.Bronze Full MemberNEW MEMBERSIndividual Members• Dr. Abraham Joseph, Institute of PublicHealth Bangalore, Vellore, India;• Dr. Beatriz Almeida De Frenk Manuel,Faculty of Medicine, Edwardo MondialeUniversity, Maputo, Mozambique;• Dr. Judi Gravdal, Rosalind Franklin University/ChicagoMedical School, AdvocateLutheran General Hospital, ParkRidge, IL, United States of America.INTERESTING INTERNET SITESThe Network: TUFH Interactive -Recommended websiteswww.the-networktufh.org/publications_resources/interactive.aspThe World Health Report 2008:Primary Health Carewww.who.int/whr/2008/whr08_en.pdfWHO Global Atlas of the Health Workforcewww.who.int/globalatlas/default.aspThe Concept of Prevention: A Good IdeaGone Astray?jech.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/62/7/580D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8 N E W S L E T T E R N U M B E R 0 2 | V O L U M E 2 7• The resistance from the medical staff.This can be overcome by three steps:awareness - sharing - commitment.Again, I think it is an important issue you• I agree with you that we are still havingthe ‘top to bottom’ culture, even in ourinnovative schools. However, I hope thatsome of the graduates will change thatin future, with more democratisation allReducing Health Care Costs trough Prevention(Prevention Institute)www.preventioninstitute.org/documents/HE_HealthCareReformPolicyDraft_091507.pdfraised. It may be worth a round table dis-over the area.cussion to come out with practical recommendations.25