DU participated in the International Conference on Medical Education, organized annually by AMEE. This year’s event was held in Glasgow, U.K. between 4-8 Sept 2010. Representing DU were Dr. Saleh Dawood, Dean of DU’s Medical School, Dr. Muhammad Kayyal, director of the Univeristy’s QA Center, Dr. Hiyam Bashour, director of the center of Medical Development, and Dr. Esther Jouri, a faculty member from the School of Dentistry.
DU representative presented the results of research done on developing the educational system, a project steered and directly supervised by the presidency of DU.
QA director, Dr. Kayyal, gave an overview of the development research at DU, which eventually lead to the development a strategic plan for the University. Dr. Bashoor gave an overview of data collected on the attitudes and opinions of faculty and student at DU’s medical school, particularly data related to clinical training. The attitude survey was conducted early 2010. Its findings reflected an overall dissatisfaction with the state of clinical training in the Medical school, and the causes behind it. For her part, Dr. Jouri delivered a lecture on the reciprocal and unique relation between oral contagions and Dental training and education.
The conference proceedings were streamed live through the internet to DU’s Medical School so that faculty members could actively participate in the discussions and interact directly, through questions, with the presenters in Glasgow.
On the side of the conference was a reception held by the president of AMEE during which she expressed appreciation of Damascus University, its academic staff, and the Medical School in particular for the active participation in the activities of the Association. DU’s institutional membership, AMEE’s president added, would facilitate the access of the faculty of its Medical school into large research databases in the field of medicine.
