President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday underscored the need for improving the quality of medical education as well as introducing uniform syllabi to establish an education standard in the field of medicine. The president, chairing the 5th meeting of the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Islamabad (SZABMU), at Aiwan-e-Sadr, said medical institutions needed to produce more nursing and para-medical staff to cater to the health needs of the country. SZABMU Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Tanwir Khaliq, members of the Senate, and faculty attended the meeting. Addressing the meeting, the president emphasized the need for developing partnerships with foreign universities to get access to foreign courses and educational content through online education. He said establishing partnerships and linkages with foreign universities was the fastest way to improve the quality of education in the country.
He also called for focusing on the prevention of diseases that was far easier and cheaper as compared to curative treatment and would also help reduce the disease burden on the country’s health infrastructure. SZABMU should be an exemplary institution and role model for others in the medical sector, he said, adding medical institutions should also focus on inculcating the spirit of serving humanity among their graduates.