Issue Four - July 12, 2004
- FAIMER Fellows Selected
- Spotlight on Fellows
- FAIMER Appointments
- The Network: Towards Unity for Health - Articles Wanted
- Contact Information
FAIMER Fellows Selected
Finalists for FAIMER's educational programs were selected and notified of their awards in May. Below is a list, by program, of the 2004 FAIMER Fellows. The list includes the fellow's name and home country institution.
2004 Institute Class
Luis Baricco
Department of General Surgery
Universidad Nacional de Tucuman, Argentina
Thomas Chacko
Community Medicine, Dept. of Medical Education
PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, India
Francois Cilliers
Center for Teaching and Learning
University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Roy Cuison
Medical Education
University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
Arun Jamkar
Department of Surgery
B.J. Medical College, India
Sarah Kiguli
Pediatrics and Child Health
Makerere University, Uganda
Rosemary Mirie
Nursing Sciences
University of Nairobi, Kenya
Edwin Nwobodo
Department of Physiology
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria
Christy Okoromah
Pediatrics and Child Health
University of Lagos, Nigeria
Ayodele B. Omotoso
Department of Medicine
University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Daljit Singh
Department of Pediatrics
Dayanand Medical College, India
Jacqueline Van Wyk
School of Undergraduate Medical Education
University of Natal, South Africa
2004 IFME Fellows
Elsie Adewoye
Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator, Department of Physiology
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Payal Bansal
Lecturer, Surgery
Convenor, Educational Process Evaluation Group
Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College, India
Nilanthi Renuka De Silva
Head, Department of Parasitology
Coordinator, Medical Education
University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
Jae Jin Han
Associate Professor, Thoracic & Cardio Vascular Surgery
Director, OSCE Committee
Ewha Womans University, South Korea
Suzette Amada Mendoza
Associate Professor of Biochemistry
Coordinator, Nervous System Module
University of the East
Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center, Philippines
Gulnara Moldotasheva
Senior Teacher, Anatomical Pathology
Head, Educational Department
Kyrgyz State Medical Academy, Kyrgyzstan
Uchenna Onwudiegwu
Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Chairman, Faculty Postgraduate Committee
Chairman, Quality Assurance Committee
Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
Devendra Singh Pant
Associate Professor, Medical Education
Tribhuvan University, Nepal
Imran Shaikh
Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences
Curriculum Coordinator
Ziauddin Medical College, Pakistan
Marina Thomas
Professor, Microbiology
Chief Superintendent and Curriculum Coordinator
PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, India
Nebreed Zemicheal
Head, School of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Jimma University, Ethiopia
Spotlight on Fellows
FAIMER is offering its e-newsletter, FAIMER MedEd, as a resource to current and former FAIMER Fellows and Fellows who participated in the ECFMG fellowship programs. Let us and others know how you are progressing with implementation of your educational program or project, of your set-backs and successes, of research projects on which you are working or have completed, of any articles or papers that were accepted for publication, and of any national or international meetings in which you were involved as an attendee, presenter, or organizer. We will accept abstracts for articles and papers that were accepted for publication. Please submit all articles, etc., in English. Include your full name, the fellowship program(s) in which you were involved and the year(s), the title(s) of your research project(s), and, for articles and papers, the publication in which the article or paper will appear. We ask that Institute Fellows include their FAIMER project title, and Fellows who participated in the former ECFMG fellowship programs and in IFME include a brief summary of their educational program. Please use "Spotlight on Fellows" as the subject of your e-mail.
A pre-formatted e-mail is available for this purpose.
If you experience difficulties with the pre-formatted e-mail, simply e-mail all of the above information to meded@faimer.org.
Nirmal Baral, 2002-2003 IFME Fellow
In November 2003, Dr. Nirmal Baral, Additional Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in Nepal, completed a twelve-month fellowship in education methods and evaluation systems, with a concentration in clinical competencies of health professionals, at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. In February 2004, Dr. Baral wrote that he was busy with the new responsibilities of a medical education unit at his school. By April, he was writing us from the Henan Province in China. In response to our e-mail concerning his visit to China, Dr. Baral informed us that he is teaching biochemistry and molecular biology at Xin Xiang Medical College, Xinxing City, China. Dr. Baral's medical institute in Nepal signed a memorandum of understanding to exchange teachers with Xin Xiang Medical College, on a rotation basis for four-month intervals, to meet the teaching demands there. Dr. Baral is teaching only foreign (non-Chinese) students. There are other teachers from Nepal and India. The language of instruction for foreign students is English. Dr. Baral will be at Xin Xiang Medical College until the end of July.
Dr. Baral wrote that, although language is major problem, this is a great opportunity for him. He says that China is quickly developing, and that you can see construction all around. In addition to his regular duties of teaching the undergraduate medical students, he is also sharing the information he received on medical education. Dr. Baral meets twice a week for about two hours with teachers from the Xin Xiang Medical College. During that time, he conducts a thirty-minute presentation and a ten-minute discussion; the rest of the time is used for interaction. There are 22 teachers and they are very enthusiastic about learning, especially in English.
Once he returns home, Dr. Baral has several plans for collaboration to improve medical education in Nepal.
Charles A. Mkony, Institute Class of 2003
In April 2004, the FAIMER Institute conducted a discussion on leadership in their listserv. Dr. Charles A. Mkony made the following contribution.
"I have been following the discussion with interest, unfortunately did not feel I have anything of much substance to share on leadership (yet), an obviously important subject.
Two months ago My Associate brought in a first year student- a tiny desperate looking girl. Before he brought her in he made a brief introduction of the problem. She is a single mother, has financial problems, has difficulties to pay her bus fares from the hostel to the school. The father of the child does not care about or for them. She was doing fairly well academically, but her life was hard, she has given her elder sister custody of the child, the child was unwell of late and she didn't have the money for her health care.
When she walked in I had problems to imagine that this child had a child! She had difficulties to say anything, and soon her eyes were welling with tears. In short, she wanted to ask for a loan from the college to meet her expenses, and to see if she could be allocated a room at the college hostel where she would not need to pay bus fares.
I advised her to write to the Principal through Dean's office, according to custom, but spontaneously I pulled out my wallet and gave her 10 dollars (equivalent), which she gratefully took and left. My colleague was sitting in looked a little surprised but did not comment. A week or so later they were paid some allowance which was pending, some 10 dollars. Since the loan she wanted was only 20 dollars, she was Ok then and she decided to withdraw the letter she had written about the loan.
I saw her once waiting to go into the examination room a few weeks later and had a little chat with her about nothing. Soon after the results were out she walked into my office with a beaming smile to announce she had passed, and to express her gratitude for the assistance I had given her. She was carrying her baby girl, who looked quite healthy. She almost ruptured her lungs with laughter when I said "Careful, if you bring the baby to my office people might think I am the father"! I met her once again on the compound since then, and she is really at ease. I have a good friend in this girl.
The lesson I learned from this girl is that together with all the scientific things you can say about leadership, if you care about the people you lead, they will know, and they will show that they know it."
FAIMER Appointments
FAIMER is supported through the efforts of a small group of full-time employees and the expertise of a number of ECFMG staff members who devote part of their time to FAIMER. Earlier this year, FAIMER made three appointments that will ensure academic and educational support as its activities continue to develop.
Shirley Williams, whose former duties focused exclusively on managing the FAIMER International Fellowships in Medical Education (IFME) and Short-Term Exchange Fellowships (STEF), has taken on broader responsibilities. In her new position as Manager of FAIMER, she will have administrative oversight over the Foundation's day-to-day operations.
FAIMER's activities are concentrated in three distinct areas. The following FAIMER cross-appointments to ECFMG staff members provide support to each of these areas.
Jack Boulet, Ph.D., has received a cross-appointment to serve as FAIMER's Director of Tracking and Research. In this role, he will oversee FAIMER's efforts to track medical education activities worldwide, as well as the Foundation's research activities. Dr. Boulet retains his ECFMG responsibilities as Assistant Vice-President, Research and Evaluation.
A second cross-appointment has been made to Bill Burdick, M.D. Dr. Burdick, who already co-directs the FAIMER Institute, will serve as FAIMER's Director of Education, overseeing the Foundation's efforts to create programs and resources for international medical educators. He will also remain ECFMG's Assistant Vice-President, Assessment Services.
The Network: Towards Unity for Health - Articles Wanted
William P. Burdick, Director of Education, recently spoke with Arthur Kaufman, M.D., one of FAIMER's Directors and Secretariat of The Network: Towards Unity for Health. Dr. Kaufman strongly encourages all FAIMER fellows to contribute articles to the electronic journal produced by The Network. Please visit The Network's website at www.the-networktufh.org and follow the link for a call for papers. Dr. Kaufman indicated that the editors of the journal will work with authors at any and all stages of manuscript preparation. He also felt that for Institute fellows, a descriptive paper on their curriculum innovation project would be most appropriate for the journal.
Dr. Burdick urges all fellows to emphasize the evaluation component of the project/educational program.
Contact Information
Mailing Address:
Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research3624 Market Street, 4th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104-2685
Web Address: www.faimer.org
E-mail: meded@faimer.org
Spotlight on Fellows: meded@faimer.org
Editor: Shirley Williams, Manager, FAIMER
FAIMER Programs
FAIMER Institute: Lisa Johnson, Administrative ManagerE-mail: faimerinstitute@faimer.org; Fax: 215-386-3309
IFME and STEF Programs: Shirley Williams, Manager
E-mail: ifme@faimer.org; Fax: 215-966-3121
IMED: Carole Bede, Senior Research Analyst
E-mail: imed@faimer.org; Fax: 215-386-9767
Research: Danette McKinley, Ph.D., Research Scientist
E-mail: meded@faimer.org; Fax: 215-386-2321