About

The successful Emirati Medical Education Conferences, organized by the National Institute for Health Specialties (NIHS) over the past two years, have become a cornerstone in the field. Building on this success, the NIHS is committed to continuing this series, with the next conference scheduled for February 15-16, 2025.

The NIHS is at the forefront of establishing and maintaining standards for specialty education and professional development. These efforts aim to enhance the national health workforce, improve the health system, and elevate the overall health of the UAE population. To further its mission and promote national capacities, NIHS continues to invest in innovative programs and partnerships that support these goals.

Conference Goals and Objectives

Goals

Enhance the Quality of Medical Education: Elevate the standards of health professions education across the UAE, with a focus on postgraduate training and specialty education.
Foster Innovation and Integration: Promote the integration of innovative technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), into medical education practices.
Support Research and Collaboration: Encourage research, evidence-based practices, and international collaboration in health professions education.
Promote Accreditation Excellence: Strengthen accreditation systems to ensure the highest quality standards in postgraduate training programs.
Advance Learner-Centered Approaches: Support the development of assessment strategies, educational frameworks, and training models tailored to competencies such as Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) and milestones.
Prioritize Wellbeing: Address the importance of wellbeing for both learners and educators to foster sustainable, supportive learning environments.

Objectives

Assessment and Competency Development:

Explore the implementation and evaluation of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) and milestones to enhance competency-based medical education.
Discuss innovative assessment tools and strategies that align with modern educational needs.

Accreditation and Quality Assurance:

Highlight the role of accreditation in ensuring high standards in postgraduate training programs.
Share best practices and frameworks for effective accreditation in health professions education.

Artificial Intelligence in Medical Education:

Examine the impact of AI on teaching, learning, and assessment in health professions education.
Discuss ethical considerations, challenges, and future opportunities for AI integration.

Specialty Training:

Explore strategies to improve specialty training programs that meet the needs of the UAE’s healthcare system.
Discuss innovative approaches to curriculum design, clinical training, and workforce planning.

Research and Collaboration:

Promote the importance of research in advancing medical education practices.
Foster regional and international collaborations to enhance innovation and knowledge exchange.

Wellbeing in Medical Education:

Address the challenges of maintaining wellbeing among trainees and educators in high-stress environments.
Share strategies and programs that prioritize mental health, resilience, and work-life balance.

The Scope and Themes of the Conference:

The ECME is positioned to address how best to use existing knowledge to guide practice and develop new knowledge to enrich HPE while bridging the interface between undergraduate and graduate health professions education. It includes

Use of artificial intelligence in health professions education
Accreditation and quality of internship, residency and fellowship programs
Assessment in postgraduate settings
Specialty training governance and organization
Regional and international collaboration for postgraduate medical education
Innovations in the training of health professions education
Interface of undergraduate and postgraduate health professions education
Continuous professional development and recognition of prior learning (RPL)

Key Benefits of attending the conference:

Stay updated with latest trends in Artificial Intelligence and its impact on health professions education
Network with your peers in the fields of health professions education
Present and showcase your work and research project or scholarly achievement
Attend training and faculty development opportunities pertaining to professional development in key areas such as accreditation, training, and assessment
Learn from NIHS experience and achievements in regulating and advancing residency education and professional development
Update yourself on advancements and contemporary issues in residency education and medical education at large
Gain Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit hours to support your licensing requirements and professional development

The Structure of the Conference:

The two-day conference will involve keynote speeches, plenary sessions, and parallel sessions on the identified themes. A new feature this year will be to showcase research related to education. Abstracts will be invited from researchers and will be showcased in oral and poster presentations after a systematic peer-review process.

The workshops shall be planned around the themes which need capacity building such as:

Role of clinicians in training and assessment
Artificial intelligence in medical education
Competency frameworks and EPAs for postgraduate programs
Assessment and examination for residency education
Accreditation surveyors training
Management skills for program directors

Target Audience:

The conference targets a wide range of audience including:

NIHS speciality committees’ members, surveyors, and associated personnel
Training centers personnel including DIOs, program directors, and faculty
Residents and fellows
Clinical leaders and staff of health authorities who are responsible for training programs and health services management and delivery
Educational leaders and faculty of medical schools and other health professions schools
Researchers and wider health professionals with an interest in health profession education
International participants with roles and interest in health professions education

Conference governance :

The oversight and overall responsibility for the conference is the mandate of the Conference Organizing Committee to be chaired by the NIHS Secretary General. Members are expected to come from partner organizations and healthcare authorities. The Secretary General shall constitute a Scientific Committee with reviewers who serve as scientific experts for the themes, the contents, the call for abstracts and papers, the appraisal of submissions and sessions organizations. The conference may seek the expertise of a relevant venue and company to handle the advertisement, communications, and logistics.