CME(Conference) on “SURGERY AMIDST COVID-19” at MC Baramulla

Continuous Medical Education (CME) on ‘SURGERY AMIDST COVID-19’ was held in the  Department of General and Minimal access Surgery Government Medical college Kanth Bagh Baramulla city  in collaboration with The Jammu and Kashmir State Chapter of the Association of Surgeons of India (JAKASI) In  which doctors from Jammu and Kashmir and outside UT participated. The occasion was on the completion of 2 years of  General and Laparoscopic surgery and to celebrate this event . Prof. A. G. Ahanger Director SKIMS & Ex. Officio Secretary to Govt. was  Chief Guest  The Patron was Prof. Ruby Reshi Principal GMC Baramulla, Chairman Prof. Altaf Hussain Shera,Vice Chairman Dr. Syed Masood ,Organizing Secretaries Dr. Hakeem Vaqar Ahmed, Dr. Afak Yusuf Sherwani ,Joint Organizing Secretary Dr. Mehmood Rashid. Organizing Committee Dr. Humam Nisar, Dr. M. Sajid Bazaaz ,Dr. Mosin Mushtaq ,Dr. Shakeeb Nabi ,Dr.  Mir Mushtaq , Dr. Vaheed Khaliq  Members Dr. Harbinder Singh, Dr. Feroze Mohammad, Dr. Waseem Akbar,  Dr. Touseef Ahmad,  Dr. Younis Ahmad,  Dr. Tanveer Mir , Prof. Fazal Q Parray Chairman JAKASI,  Prof. Sanjay Bhasin Hon’y Secretary JAKASI,  Dr. Zaffar Saleem Khanday Hon’y Treasurer JAKASI.  Medical practitioners need to update themselves frequently as radical changes are occuring in the practice of medicine with the advent of new technologies, changes in health care delivery, changing demographics and patterns of diseases. Continuing medical education programs (CME) was organized for acquiring the skills and knowledge that the new trends in health care demand; and to motivate doctors to improve their perfor-mance and adopt continuous learning. CME acts as a vehicle in plugging the gap in knowledge that has supposed to have developed over the years between the medical personnel and the changing health care patterns. The aim of any type of education system is to provide maximum benefits to the respondents. Similarly a CME also was a method for effective communication to improve the quality of learning and provide an opportunity for improvement. The CME was organized in such a way that it encourages questioning, reflective and creative thinking in the delegates. Despite so many CMEs being conducted each year, there are no published guidelines regarding how to conduct one.Organizing a CME requires preparation months ahead of schedule. The first task was to identify a core group of dedicated and reliable individuals, who  worked towards organizing the CME. These members had a list of tasks ahead of them like charting the scientific programs, arranging the details of local hospitality of guests, accommodation, venue, audiovisuals and catering. For better function-ing and improvisation the same groups formed sub committees each of which was then delegated specific responsibilities. One or two key persons shared the responsibility of coordinating between the sub-committees and this mantle usually falls on the Organizing Secretary. The second task was to define the theme of the CME. The speakers and topics need to tie up towards the central theme. In addition a fair mix of lectures, demonstrations, panel discussions and symposia were essential to make a CME appeal to the audience.The third task was to identify the target audience of the CME.The scientific committee  formulated the program to suit the delegates. Often most CMEs have a mixed audience,. The most difficult task was to estimate the approximate cost and arrange the requisite funds. The onus of raising funds collectively rested  on the core-group who devise strategies to meet the same.Audio-visual equipment lighting system with associated paraphernalia are essential features of any CME along with a competent projectionist. Care had to be exercised in choosing acoustics, audio and video systems. We prefered to leave this in the hands of professionals. Most CME programs require the equipment Illumination of the dias had to be done with care to assist the speaker and not interfere with the projections. Members of the reception committee were courteous, appealing, able to respond to queries with aplomb and took care of spot registrations. The scientific session  consisted of lectures, symposia, panel discussion. Lectures were one way exchange of information and interaction was least in this form. The advantage was that a lot of information was transferred in a short span of time. Panel discussions involved many speakers and were time consuming. The chair persons of these programs had to be adept with the recent advances and had the capacity to extract the maximum from the panelist. Innovations were the order of the day to attract the audience and ensure maximum attendance. Newer methods of interactions was devised. Problem solving exercises was encouraged. A case situation were discussed serially as in an actual case scenario with active participation form the audience at each step.Inauguration was  done by Director SMIKS & ex-office secretary to JK Government Prof. A G Ahanger and Principal GMC Baramulla Dr Ruby Reshi.This  picking up the speakers and the delegates on arrival, arranging their seat, pickup to and from the venue and subsequently seeing them off. Programs was arranged to engage the  person to keep them occupied during the period. This task required a team of dedicated persons who were present throughout the period and performed their duty with a warm smile. Very often, this was what makes a name for the organizers of the CME.Updating knowledge at periodic intervals had become a necessity due to rapid expansion in medical field at various levels and explosion of information and technology. Clinicians are forced to maintain highest possible standards in professional practice. CMEs in recent years had gained recognition as a concrete means to achieve these ends. Due to the changing scenario, clinicians had to be acquainted with the latest mode of therapy. Recognition of disparity in skills and the need to maintain core standards had been the key factor in the certification of doctors, at periodic intervals  who were earlier awarded certificates for life.Countries across the globe, who have a policy of renewing specialists licenses, have now devised means to award CME credits, which could be in different categories. Clinicians may be required to attend certain number of CMEs every year to obtain the necessary credit for re-certification. Performance could also be gauged by letters of recommendation from chiefs of hospitals, peer review, papers published and independent assessment by other health professionals or patient satisfaction. The participants, included  doctors from  SKIMS Srinagar,GMC Srinagar,GMC Anantnag,ASCOMS jammu,GMC jammu Faculty, Senior and Junior Residents from the Department of Surgery participated in the deliberations.