KARACHI: Pakistan is all set to open up a ‘medical corridor’ with China and leading medics are busy preparing to launch the first medical congress featuring the two countries next year, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) announced on Monday.
“We are organising the first-ever three-day Pak-China Med Con (medical congress) starting on Jan 8 next year,” said Prof Syed Tipu Sultan, former PMA president and head of the organising committee established for the upcoming congregation.
He said the joint congress of the PMA and Chinese Medical Association to be held in Karachi would commemorate the historic event of Pak-China economic corridor as “an initiative for a joint Pak-China medical corridor”.
All scientific sessions of the conference would be held at a local hotel while a series of social, cultural and community awareness programmes would be organised at the Arts Council of Pakistan. Besides, said Prof Sultan, the PMA House Karachi would host the business sessions.
“We are inviting health experts from China and some countries from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) to deliver state-of-the-art lectures on different medical and scientific topics of common interest so as to benefit from their vast experience and knowledge,” said Prof Sultan.
Dr Mirza Ali Azhar, PMA secretary general, said the medical corridor would lay the foundation of medical tourism in Pakistan, with China and Saarc countries benefitting from cheaper surgeries in various disciplines. Also, Pakistan would open its doors to traditional acupuncture as a mode of healing, and other significant medical genres.
“This opportunity could also benefit our medical equipment manufacturing industry which could get access to China and various other destinations through Chinese assistance,” said Dr Azhar.
Different specialties have joined hands with the PMA to organise and participate in the scientific programme which will be conducted in eight parallel sessions for three days. Prof M. Idrees Adhi is organising the programme as its chairman.
Scientific committee
Prof Adhi, chairman, and Dr Hamid Manzoor, secretary, of the scientific committee, said discussions and community awareness programmes would also be held in the congress on different issues such as population control, maternal and child health, reproductive health, blindness, safe drinking water, addiction, sexually transmitted diseases, environment and human rights issues. He said civil society representatives would also take part in the events.
All scientific sessions, seminars and workshops would be recognised as part of continuous medical education (CME). The CME credit hours would be awarded to all registered participants attending the sessions, said Dr SM Qaisar Sajjad, treasurer, PMA Centre.
Prof Sultan said an impressive inaugural ceremony would be held on Jan 8 at a local hotel in which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had been invited as the chief guest.
He said renowned medical experts from across the country would talk at plenary sessions on different key medical issues such as organ transplant (kidney, liver etc), blindness, pain management and acupuncture, the growing burden of diseases in Pakistan, trauma, impotency and brain tumours.
Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2015
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