College of Family Medicine Pakistan inaugurates Course for Diabetes

The College of Family Medicine Pakistan inaugurated a Certificate Course for Diabetes Management for Family Physicians, on 10th April 2016. The Course is aptly titled, “Fighting diabetes: educate 2 health.” The title is chosen in line with the WHO slogan 2016: "Beat the diabetes."

The course is of six months duration available both face to face and online. It is designed keeping in mind the busy schedules of Family Physicians.

So far the course has 200 registered participants from all over the country. The first batch starts 17th April and the second batch starts after six months.

The course is designed to meet the educational needs of primary healthcare professionals, the Family Physicians and General Practitioners. It is accredited by PMDC (Pakistan Medical and Dental Council) for 60 CME credit hours. The course faculty comprises of some of the eminent professors of diabetes, endocrinology and family medicine in Pakistan and abroad.

Prof M Zaman Shaikh a prominent academician and endocrinologist of Pakistan who has headed several institutes of diabetes and endocrinology is the course director. Course is titled: "fighting diabetes: educate 2 health " and has been written by Dr Shehla Naseem, in collaboration with Professor Zaman Shaikh and the senior course faculty. Dr Shehla is also the Secretary General of College of Family Medicine Pakistan and member examination board MRCGP Int South Asia region. Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro is the course coordinator, and he is also the joint secretary of the college. The team is one of the pioneers in developing online courses for family physicians in Pakistan. It is a synergistic effort of the team of College of Family Medicine Pakistan, to create a course addressing the need of family physicians. The IT team has developed a specific website for the diabetes course. It is expected to be accredited by a number of national and international bodies.

The course was inaugurated by Professor Samad Shera, chairman IDF (International Diabetes Federation) and was very well attended by the senior course faculty, eminent professors and more than a 100 family physicians.

Prof Samad Shera in his address remarked that he was very impressed by the discipline and punctuality of family physicians in starting the program of course inauguration 1 min 40 seconds earlier than scheduled, the hall was full and all invitees had taken seats. He stressed upon the need of proper education and training of family physicians and awareness of general public about diabetes.

Prof Zaman Shaikh, the course director in his welcome address gave a brief overview of the alarming situation of diabetes in Pakistan. He remarked that it was a great initiative to design and start a course for the family physicians, because most of the available courses were unable to address the specific requirements of family physicians and only catered to people working in tertiary healthcare facilities. He appreciated the efforts of CFMP team in the leadership of Dr Shehla for this innovative project.

Dr Shehla Naseem while giving the overview of the course said that, “Our objective is to train all family physicians of Pakistan so that they can appropriately manage diabetes and reduce the complications faced by a large population of Pakistani people. Preventing complications is cheaper than managing complications of Diabetes. Diabetes is increasing in Pakistan at an alarming rate. Every Pakistani has to play a role in fighting the disease. The College shall play its role in revolutionizing the quality of care at primary care level.”

Talking to press she said: “We must realize that a family physician is already an empowered professional who takes a huge responsibility on his shoulders of managing health in his area of domain. Given the right training and tools of practice, these leaders of health can play a great role in awareness, prevention and treatment of diabetes”.

The event was covered by local media and medical journalists and newspapers.