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Universitas 21 Health Sciences

Annual Meetings - Hong Kong 2007

As part of the University of Hong Kong's celebration of 120 years of medical education, Professor Raymond Liang, Acting Dean of the university's Faculty of Medicine, hosted the 2007 annual meeting of the U21 Health Sciences group.

Colleagues from public health and exercise science joined over 140 delegates from medicine, dentistry, nursing, health and rehabilitation sciences, and pharmacy at this year's meeting in Hong Kong (27-29 September 2007).

Following on from the morning multidisciplinary sessions, the various discipline groups convened separately over two afternoons. The discipline group meetings provided colleagues with an opportunity to explore specific issues and follow up on matters introduced during the multidisciplinary segment of the annual meeting.

Associated events included an e-health workshop with practical sessions on telehealth; a nursing doctoral forum involving twelve PhD students from seven schools in six countries; a leadership in health sciences workshop; and dentistry's forensic odontology and disaster victim identification symposium.

Outcomes of the annual meeting and associated events include new initiatives and further development of current projects.

The following U21 universities were represented:

U21 Health Sciences Group
U21 Health Sciences delegates

U21 Dentistry Group
U21 Dentistry delegates

View the participant list [PDF 18kB] .

 

Workshop on global e-health (24-25 September 2007)

A third workshop on global e-health was conducted prior to the U21 Health Sciences annual meeting. The workshop comprised an afternoon of 'hands-on' sessions on the practical aspects of telehealth and a second day comprising presentations, reports and opportunities for discussion on e-health developments including telehealth and the U21 Health Sciences/Swinfen Charitable Trust initiative, e-health policy, professional portability and internationalism, and examples and challenges in e-health and e-education.

View the U21 e-health workshop programme [PDF 19.6kB].

View available presentations:

 

Nursing doctoral student forum (24-25 September 2007)

A second doctoral student forum was held at the University of Hong Kong prior to the annual meeting. In addition to local PhD students, participants came from Australia (Melbourne and Queensland), Singapore, the United Kingdom (Dublin and Nottingham), and Virginia. The overall theme of the forum was 'Towards Excellence in Research Career'. Day 1 of the forum comprised key presentations from leading researchers at the University of Hong Kong. Day two included a presentation on research, ethics and pitfalls for new researchers. Participants were given the opportunity to present their doctoral research under the major headings of research in an international context; research and policy; and ethics and research. Feedback at the conclusion of the forum and a subsequent formal evaluation of the event indicated that participants found the experience very worthwhile in terms of their research and contact with colleagues and senior Faculty from around the world. A third doctoral student forum will be held at the University of Virginia (UVa) in 2008 to coincide with the ninth annual meeting of the U21 Health Sciences group.

View the U21 nursing doctoral student forum programme [PDF 37.7kB]

Research, ethics and pitfalls for new researchers (Prof Desley Hegley) [PDF 27kB]

 

The Core Meeting Programme - selected presentations, reports and notes

Keynote addresses at this year's annual meeting focused on the themes of academic health care from the perspective of government; health services provision from the perspective of academia; and globalization and the healthcare workforce. The multidisciplinary programme also included segments on interprofessional learning, curriculum reform evaluation, and graduate entry to health sciences programmes. A press conference on the U21 Health Sciences initiative for the education of students on UN Millennium Development Goals was held on day 1 of the meeting. The U21 Health Sciences Executive met on day 2. The annual meeting concluded with a series of brief presentations, including reports from each of the discipline groups and the Executive. A brief overview of the 2009 meeting being hosted by the University of Virginia was provided by Professor James Angus (The University of Melbourne) and the meeting concluded with a presentation of souvenirs to representatives of the U21 member universities.

View the core meeting programme [32kB]

 

CORE MEETING PROGRAMME - DAY 1

Keynote Speech 1: Academic Medicine from the Perspective of Health Service Providers (Dr S V So) [PDF 592kB]

Keynote Speech 2: Health Service Provision from the Perspective of the Academia (Prof G Tang) [PDF 387kB]

Symposium on Interprofessional Learning

Prof Terence Stephenson (Chair); Prof Jung Yul Park, Ms Lesley Bainbridge, Dr Charles Shuler, Mrs Heather Baker and Prof John Shaw (speakers)

View the presentations:

Following the presentations, members of the interprofessional e-health group (Prof Kendall Ho, Dr Lisa Nissen, Prof Nick Shaw, Dr Trevor Russell) reported on the results of a survey exploring interprofessional e-health initiatives across the U21 Health Sciences network.

View the presentation:

Press conference on the U21 Health Sciences initiative relating to United Nations Millennium Development Goals (Prof Kendall Ho, Prof Niv Patil, and Prof Martin Hernandez Torre)

 

CORE MEETING PROGRAMME - DAY 2

Debate on Graduate entry to Health Sciences Programme student and staff exchange

Motion: "Graduate entry to health sciences programmes is better than high school student entry in terms of the training of health care providers"

Prof Peter Brooks (Chair); Dr SC Chan (for the motion); Dr Pamela Lee (against the motion)
Prof David Wilkinson, Prof Veronica James, Prof Michael Morgan, Dr Robert Sindelar (speakers)

View the presentations:

Symposium on Curriculum Reform Evaluation

Prof Gillian Webb and Prof Peter Smith (co-chairs); Prof Maureen Simmonds, Dr Martin Hernandez-Torre, Dr Esmonde Corbet, Mrs Joan McDowell, Prof Nick Shaw (speakers)

View the presentations:

U21 Health Sciences Executive Committee meeting

View the notes of the meeting. [PDF 27kB]

CORE MEETING PROGRAMME - DAY 3

Keynote Speech 3: The Looming War for Skills: Global Demand for Asian Medical and Nursing Professionals (Prof Lesleyanne Hawthorne) [PDF 285kB]

 

The discipline meetings - programmes, selected presentations, reports

Meeting programmes included both discipline-specific and interdisciplinary issues, as well as follow-up on a range of matters including previously identified projects, proposed initiatives, and key meeting themes.

Medicine

The U21 medicine group's meeting comprised presentations and discussion on a range of topics including the running of a Faculty; international health; external fundraising; working hour restrictions; and innovation in medical education. Members were also provided with an update on the U21 Health Sciences / United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) initiative; the collaboration between U21 Health Sciences and the Swinfen Charitable Trust, and a report on the e-health workshop.

Professor Raymond Liang, the Host of the 2007 annual meeting, provided a brief overview of proceedings and outcomes of the medicine group meeting, reiterating the Deans' ongoing support for the development of materials for medical students' education and training relating to MDGs and expansion of the initiative to include health sciences students; and e-health activities including the e-health workshop, the 'telehealth for underserved' project, the U21 / Swinfen Charitable Trust initiative, e-health policy development, and a book on e-health. As the next meeting is being hosted by the University of Virginia, it was agreed that U21 medicine would take the opportunity to have a dialogue with organizations such as the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in 2008.

View U21 Medicine meeting agenda [PDF 49kB]

View available presentations:

 

Dentistry

Major topics for the U21 dentistry meeting included undergraduate study, post-graduate clinical programmes, e-learning and forensic odontology. Updates included a report on the Dental World Congress and a report on benchmarking.

View U21 Dentistry meeting agenda. [PDF 40kB]

View available presentations:

View the meeting report. [PDF 60kB]

 

Nursing

The U21 nursing group continued discussion on benchmarking research and clinical education, as well as student exchange. Additional topics included e-health; clinical academic careers; research data as part of the scholars programme; and follow-up on the doctoral student forum. At the meeting, the U21 nurses utilized benchmarking results from previous years to focus on exemplary practices for particular aspects of clinical teaching or research, and the strategies undertaken by universities that support and bring about those exemplary practices. Discussion also focused on alternative opportunities for student exchange across the U21 network, for example 'virtual exchange' via the internet; the refinement of research data on the U21 Health Sciences web site; and new clinical models of teaching.

View U21 Nursing meeting agenda. [PDF 34kB]

 

Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

Topics at the meeting of the U21 health and rehabilitation sciences group included a tele-assessment project, e-health, strengthening the research/education/clinical practice nexus, reflective learning during an online course, student and staff exchange, and standardized patients. The agenda also included an update about the forthcoming publication of the position paper on practice education.

View U21 Health and Rehabilitation Sciences meeting agenda. [PDF 35kB]

View available presentations:

View the meeting report. [PDF 14kB]

 

Pharmacy

The U21 pharmacy group discussed and presented on a range of topics including the latest programmes for patient education and communication; interprofessional education; preceptor training; and enhancing the clinical experiences for pharmacy students. The meeting included a report on the 'Visualizing Issues in Pharmacy' project.

View U21 Pharmacy meeting agenda. [PDF 34kB]

View available presentations:

View the meeting report. [PDF 277kB]

 

Public Health

Dr Chris Bullen from the University of Auckland's School of Population Health reported on the Public Health group's meeting in Hong Kong. As this was the inaugural meeting of this group, a major focus was on making connections and understanding how public health is organized and run in U21 member universities. It was acknowledged that semantics and how the area was organized and badged within an institution impacted on the scope of public health in member universities. For example, U21 member universities included Schools of Population Health, Schools of Public Health, and other arrangements, for example, where public health might be embedded within a Department of Community Medicine. The group also focused on the core public health competencies for medical students and graduates, and it was acknowledged that postgraduate programmes presented challenges in terms of funding / research / teaching and career pathways. Potential research collaborations included a study to promote tobacco cessation involving the University of Auckland and the University of Hong Kong; and bio-preparedness and obesity, major themes proposed for the next U21 Health Sciences meeting in Virginia in 2008.

View the U21 Public Health meeting agenda.[PDF 43kB]

 

Exercise Science

Topics discussed by the Exercise Science group included global mobility for PhD students; collaborative web-based postgraduate coursework programmes; professional/community service interactions; and discussion on collaborative opportunities in service provision.

View the U21 Exercise Science meeting agenda. [PDF 39kB]

View the meeting report. [PDF 14kB]

 

Leadership in Health Sciences Workshop

The leadership in health sciences workshop comprised a series of interactive workshops on the effective leader; leadership and teamwork; a faculty in crisis; and the strategic context of leadership. Workshop facilitators included Ms Alison Johns, Head of Leadership, Governance and Management (LGM) at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE); Professor James Angus (The University of Melbourne), Professor Terence Stephenson (The University of Nottingham) and Professor Niv Patil (The University of Hong Kong). More than twenty people from within and beyond the U21 network took part in the workshop. A post-workshop evaluation indicated that participants found the workshop to be a worthwhile experience and it is proposed to schedule a second leadership workshop to coincide with U21 Health Sciences meeting in Virginia in September 2008.

View the U21 Leadership workshop programme. [PDF 27kB]

 

Symposium - Forensic Odontology and disaster victim identification

The Forensic Odontology (FOd) and disaster victim identification (DVI) symposium (29-30 September 2007) comprised a series of presentations by speakers from around the world covering the practice and teaching of FOd and DVI and innovations in the field within a global context.

View the FOd and DVI programme.

View the FOd and DVI report. [PDF 130kB]

 

Summary of annual meeting Outcomes

New multidisciplinary projects for U21 Health Sciences include the preparation of materials to educate and train students in relation to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDGs). This project has been led by the University of British Columbia's Professor Kendall Ho and has resulted in the development of a UN MDG workbook led by The University of Hong Kong, and the development of a UN MDG website led by Tec de Monterrey. Nine member universities with fourteen medicine, nursing, physiotherapy and dentistry faculties have expressed interest in working together to train students in UN MDG awareness and knowledge, and it is anticipated that U21 Pharmacy will be involved in well. Work is underway to form a community of faculty and students to progress this initiative.

Another major focus is interprofessional (IP) e-health. In Hong Kong, the IP e-health working group was endorsed as a steering committee, and the Executive gave in-principal support for funding to support the ongoing activities of the committee members including the proposed publication of their report on IP e-health initiatives across the U21 Health Sciences network; further developing the use of the internet in publicizing and supporting IP e-health activities; identifying and supporting best practice in the field; and developing an IP e-health project with broad involvement across the U21 network.

Work continues on the collaboration between U21, U21 Health Sciences and the UK's Swinfen Charitable Trust, to professionalize and expand the current model of telemedicine and the network established by Lord and Lady Swinfen. In July 2007, a professional fundraiser was appointed to generate funds from traditional philanthropic sources and possibly grant money to finance the expansion of telemedical services, and Professor Peter Brooks has been co-opted as a member of the Executive to advise and report on progress and future developments.

Benchmarking, building research capacity, and exploring opportunities for staff and student exchange are ongoing activities. U21 nursing will focus on 'virtual student exchange' utilizing a web-based system to enable students to network internationally, explore the health care systems of other countries, and debate global health care issues. In Hong Kong, the U21 nurses utilized benchmarking results from previous years to focus on exemplary practices for particular aspects of clinical teaching or research, and the strategies undertaken by universities that support and bring about those exemplary practices. In 2007-2008 a working group will prepare (for publication) a paper outlining the U21 nurses' experiences of benchmarking clinical education in an international context. The next round of benchmarking in nursing (clinical education and research) will take place in 2010. Benchmarking is an ongoing activity for U21 Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and Pharmacy; and U21 Dentistry proposes to refine benchmarking documentation to include categories of information to reflect research assessment activities and publication bands.

Curriculum and e-health initiatives include U21 Dentistry's proposal to develop an international collaborative aspect to e-portfolios with 'Blogs' involving dental students across the U21 network. U21 Health and Rehabilitation Sciences members plan to hold a series of teleconferences leading up to next year's meeting to prepare for a wide ranging discussion on curriculum issues, the outcome of which is planned to be the development of a professional issues paper titled 'Challenging the current paradigms of practice education'.

Potential research collaborations include a study to promote tobacco cessation involving public health members at the University of Auckland and the University of Hong Kong, and shared postgraduate coursework development and delivery in clinical exercise science.

Associated events including the e-health workshop, the nursing doctoral student forum, and the leadership workshop will be held again to coincide with the U21 Health Sciences meeting in Virginia in 2008. Following the Forensic Odontology and disaster victim identification symposium in Hong Kong, U21 Dentistry is considering a flagship e-learning project using web-based delivery of content in Forensic Odontology.

The next U21 Health Sciences meeting will be hosted by the University of Virginia in the week beginning Monday 15 September 2008. Major themes include the pandemic of obesity, biopreparedness, technology in education, and bedside and outpatient teaching.

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