4th International Conference on Medical and Health Sciences

Medical Education Centre for Research, Innovation and Training (MECRIT) and Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan (KGUMSB) is initiating the Fourth International Confer­ence on Medical and Health Sciences starting from No­vember 9. This year, the theme of the program is “Im­proving Quality and Patient Safety in Health Care”.

The main objective for holding the conference is to gather the researchers, aca­demicians, clinicians, public health specialists and differ­ent health professionals to share their research and ex­periences in order to enrich their knowledge and learn about the new developments in the health sectors.

The inaugural ceremony was graced by Chief Justice, Lyonpo Tshering Wangchuk in the presence of Health Minister, Lyonpo Dechen Wangmo as the guest of honor. He addressed the con­ference enthusiastically ex­pressing his expectation for such an intellectual, stimu­lating, necessary and useful conference being initiated. He said, “The conference will certainly provide a platform for our health professionals to enhance their knowledge and skills, get insights into new developments and cre­ate a learning network which will facilitate in strengthen­ing health care services in our country.” He added that the health is a tangible reality that directly affects the lives of individual, family and the nation at large.

Public health systems around the globe are operat­ing in a huge and constantly changing dimension. At such a point of time, it is important to learn and discover for the wellbeing of the people

“The necessity for quality and safety improvement ini­tiatives permeate healthcare” added the Lyonpo .Hence, the conference will provide a platform to acquire such knowledge and learn about the latest developments.

Bhutan has shown a sig­nificant development and progress in the health care services over the decades. However, the president of KGUMSB, Kinzang P. Tsher­ing said that the nation is still behind the global standards. Thus, such conferences are necessary for discussion and development to upgrade the services from the health sec­tors to reach the standards of the world. Moreover, he added that the time has come to go from volume to value, that is to improve the quality of health services through the perspective of patient keep­ing them as the center who needs the care.

The conference will pro­vide various workshop on medical errors, Zhinay (mindfulness-traditional ap­proach), Ethical dilemma in health research in low income countries, Holistic Medical Education, and Adult and Neonatal Resuscitation. The conference will be opened for discussions to improve the health facilities and share knowledge among the profes­sionals.

President Kinzang P. Tshering said, “These things will only be possible when we are conscious about the qual­ity of the care and put patient in the center of our planning and service promotion, mak­ing health care safer with bet­ter outcome.”

The ceremony followed with the release of University Annual Report, Traditional Medicine Anatomy Book, Bhutan Health Journal and Conference abstract booklet.

On the keynotes ad­dressed by former chief ex­ecutive officer of Healthcare Accreditation Institute, Dr. Anuwat Supachutikul, talked about improving the health system with four transforma­tion agendas as follows;

Review of daily activities

Qualitative Management System

Standard Guided Qualita­tive Management Systems

Performance excellence

In addition, he said, “the basic transformation are the ways of thinking, communi­cating and treating each oth­er with care.”

The conference is orga­nized in collaboration with Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital, mainly the teaching hospi­tal with the support from United Nation International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), World Health Or­ganizations (WHO) and Min­istry of Health (MoH).

 

By Kinley Wangchuk