IAMP Signs On as Partner in Global Reform Effort
The effort to reform the education of health professionals globally got a boost with the signing of a sub-contract with the InterAcademy Foundaton of the InterAcademy Medical Panel IAMP in October 2011. Led by Dr. Bernie Jones, the InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP) will provide a platform for additional dissemination and adaptation of the Commission report recommendations in regions with especially large numbers of low- and middle-income countries. The IAMP is a global organization based in Trieste, Italy that consists of 71 national medical academies and science academies with membership from all regions of the world. It is closely affiliated with the InterAcademy Panel (IAP), an organization of 104 international academies of science.
Innovative Educational Global Forum to be Launched; Seeking University Collaboratives
The U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) is on track to launch a new Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education in February 2012, inspired in large part by the Lancet Commission report and spearheaded by Commissioner Patrick Kelley, MD, DrPH, who is director of the Board on Global Health and African Science Academy Development at IOM. The intent of the Forum is to convene stakeholders to illuminate issues in health professional education, and to support an ongoing, innovative mechanism to incubate and evaluate new ideas. This incubator mechanism will be four “innovation collaboratives,” which will be multifocal, interprofessional and global.
China Launches Its Own Commission for Reform
A China Commission on Health Professional Education for the 21st Century—paralleling the mandate of the Commission, but focused exclusively on implementation of the findings in China—was launched at the Peking University Health Sciences Center (PUHSC) in Beijing, China on 4 May 2011. At the same time, printed copies of the Chinese translation of the report were released. Professor Ke Yang, Executive Vice President of Health Sciences at Peking University, who was also a Commissioner, presided over the ceremony. Prof. Dong Zhe, shown in photo, will coordinate the China Commission.
Asian Network Progress
The five countries comprising the Asian Network — Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, China and India — have begun to organize information-sharing efforts to catalyze health profession education reform in their own countries and regionally. Bui Thu Ha, MD, PhD, vice dean of Hanoi School of Public Health, is serving as regional coordinator, a role that will be rotated with a member of Thailand’s team. Thailand is preparing a situation analysis for Health Education Reform, and is piloting a new survey instrument in July, conducting face-to-face interviews and site visits in Khon Kaen. In August Thailand will convene a regional meeting to discuss the survey.
Asian Network Formed to Catalyze Reform
A consultative meeting on 28 April in Hanoi, Vietnam has resulted in the formation of a five-country Asian Network to catalyze health profession education reform and promote exchange, sharing and learning. The meeting included national teams from Vietnam, Thailand and Bangladesh, plus two observer delegations from China and India, who came together to explore the desirability and feasibility of establishing an Asian Network.