Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download

Dental Tribune Pakistan Edition

Group Editor Daniel Zimmermann newsroom@dental-tribune.com +49 341 48 474 107 Clinical Editor Magda Wojtkiewicz Online Editors Yvonne Bachmann Claudia Duschek Copy Editors Sabrina Raaff Hans Motschmann Publisher/President/CEO Torsten Oemus Director of Finance & Controlling Dan Wunderlich Business Development Manager Claudia Salwiczek Events Manager Esther Wodarski Media Sales Managers Matthias Diessner (Key Accounts) Melissa Brown (International) Peter Witteczek (Asia Pacific) Maria Kaiser (North America) Weridiana Mageswki (Latin America) Hélène Carpentier (Europe) Marketing & Sales Services Nadine Dehmel Nicole Andrä Accounting Karen Hamatschek Executive Producer Gernot Meyer Dental Tribune International Holbeinstr. 29, 04229 Leipzig, Germany Tel.: +49 341 48 474 302 | Fax: +49 341 48 474 173 www.dental-tribune.com info@dental-tribune.com Regional Offices Asia Pacific Dental Tribune Asia Pacific Limited Room A, 20/F, Harvard Commercial Building, 105–111 Thomson Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong Tel.: +852 3113 6177 | Fax: +8523113 6199 The Americas Tribune America, LLC 116 West 23rd Street, Ste. 500, New York, N.Y. 10011, USA Tel.: +1 212 244 7181 | Fax: +1 212 244 7185 International Imprint Publisher/CEO Syed Hashim A. Hasan hashim.hasan@dental-tribune.com.pk Editor Clinical Research: Dr. Inayatullah Padhiar Editors Research & Public Health Prof. Dr. Ayyaz Ali Khan Editorial Assistance Dr. Tayaba N. Khan Editor - Online Haseeb Uddin Dental Tribune Pakistan 3rd floor, Mahmood Centre, BC-11, Block-9 Clifton, Karachi, Pakistan. Tel.: +92 21 35378440-2 | Fax: +92 21 35836940 www.dental-tribune.com.pk info@dental-tribune.com.pk Dental Tribune cannot assume responsibility for the validity of product claims or for typographical errors. The publisher also does not assume responsibility for product names or statements made by advertisers. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and may not reflect of Dental tribune Pakistan. Pakistan Edition May 20142 DENTAL TRIBUNE The Government of Pakistan has recently announced the National budget for the fiscal year 2014-2015, in which one big relief promised for the poorest segments of the society, is a Free Health Insurance Scheme being launched through a special financial allocation of One Billion Rupees. According to the plan of this pioneering effort, the allocated fund of One Billion Rupees should be enough to extend health insurance facilities to nearly 100 million common people. The implementation of this Pilot project has been spread over several phases. Each beneficiary of the Scheme will enjoy health coverage against tertiary diseases and special ailments. The scheme has recently recieved the approval from the prime minister, in the presence of the Youth Programme's Chairperson - Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Finance Minister, Health Minister, and top officials of these ministries. The scheme will operate through the Health Ministry, and deliver the benefits through the joint efforts of authorized institutions including; Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) and National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA), who will also be responsible for systematic identification and selection of the most deserving beneficiaries. It has been suggested that, each beneficiary may be issued a Health Insurance Card, which will be digitally identified at numerous designated medical institutions, for “Cash-Free” payment of healthcare expenditure. This scheme will also foster productive competition between public and private institutions. The scheme will begin specific districts, which are commonly known to be totally deprived of healthcare facilities since decades. In the next phase, it will be strategically expanded throughout the country. Slum dwellers and the most under- privileged segments of the population have been targeted as the primary beneficiaries. During the formulation of this scheme, the planners took some concepts from highly successful systems of “Social Security” and “Grievance Redressal” for the lowest income segment, adopted in the USA and other European Union States. Even the Indian method was studied, as it presents similar social and economic circumstances. Prime Minister – Nawaz Sharif has expressed hope that; “the scheme will also enhance public-private partnership in Pakistan and will open up further avenues for investment”. Maryam Nawaz Sharif has commented that; The scheme is designed on simple lines to ensure cost efficiency, and will be devoid of any political influence. It will provide a blanket cover for cash-free treatment to poor people for major diseases including; Cardiovascular, Diabetes Mellitus, life and limb saving treatment, implants, prosthesis, end-stage renal diseases and dialysis, chronic infections (hepatitis), organ failure (hepatic, renal, cardio-pulmonary) and cancer treatment (chemotherapy, radiation & surgery). The high-level participants of the meeting have also agreed upon the establishment of a pioneering, cutting-edge organ transplant centre in Islamabad. The relevant ministries have been instructed by the Prime Minister, to finalize all the technical modalities and collaborate swiftly, to provide the earliest possible relief to the suffering humanity. Free Health Insurance for poorest Pakistanis By Kashif Arif We need to completely realign our curriculum after identifying the various social demographics and the diverse needs of each segment of our society – said Prof. Dr. Ayyaz Ali Khan (PhD – Community Dentistry) The Medical and Dental Council of Bangladesh has recently approved a new curriculum for the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) programme, by extending their four-year programme to a duration of five years. The decision was taken in Dhaka to improve the knowledge-base, skill- set and global accreditation of Dental graduates in Bangladesh. In Pakistan too, over the past several years, the medical and dental sector stakeholders and academicians have been repeatedly engaged in a similar debate over the appropriateness of our current health sciences curriculum, which was inherited way-back from the Britain Raj in the Subcontinent. Numerous debates were aimed to make the Pakistani graduates competent enough to cure the patients, using the latest advancements in medical sciences & techniques, while becoming more competitive on a global scale. Prof. Dr. Ayyaz Ali Khan (PhD) – the leading dentist and researcher of Pakistan, in a statement given to Dental News recently said that; There is a need for total revamping of the failed to meet the needs of our society. The current curriculum debate in Pakistan is mostly revolving around arguments on shuffling various topics from one subject to another. It totally ignores the importance of our social demographics. We do teach Implants to our under- graduates, but we forget that Implants is only 3% of the market needs. Prof. Dr. Ayyaz Ali Khan further stated that; our grads are virtually ignorant of Paediatrics, although more than 25% of our society comprises of young citizens. We ignore the subject of Geriatrics, although 22% our society comprises of elderly people. The fresh dental graduate knows little about treatment considerations for Medically- compromised patients, despite the extremely high incidence of Diabetes and Hepatitis. We need to completely realign our syllabus after identifying the demographics and the diverse needs of each segment of our society. In order to create comprehensively trained dental surgeons, our BDS programmes might as well be extended to a duration of 6 years. Another pioneering Dental Surgeon, seasoned academician and Editor of JPDA – Dr. Inayat ullah Padhiar commented on the curriculum, saying; There is a lack of research-orientation in our BDS programme curriculum, whereby our graduates donot gain sufficient skills or inspiration towards research or segmentation of their patients, which can lead them to qualify in the more demanded specializations. The society's demographics and disease-burden needs to be categorized according to the different regions in the country. Dr. Inayat feels that the regulatory guidelines provided by PMDC are similar to the globally accepted rules, however, as a nation we lack the will to implement the rules, strictly & prudently, in every aspect of our social and professional lives. Thus, more prudent behaviors are desirable in the field of dental education too. “Our colleges are also accused of producing elitist doctors, who are best suited to practice in urban centers rather than in the less privileged rural communities. Our community based dental awareness programs are still in an infancy stage and are suffering from the neglect of higher decision making bodies and even of the dental professional organizations. We need to re-define the characteristics of our doctors to enable them to meet the specific needs of our health-deprived Continued on page 11 Dental curriculum - time for change? By Kashif Arif +4934148474107 Tel.: +4934148474302 | Fax: +4934148474173 Tel.: +85231136177 | Fax: +85231136199 Tel.: +12122447181 | Fax: +12122447185 Tel.: +922135378440-2 | Fax: +922135836940

Pages Overview