REPORT OF JOS UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL/AFRICA PARTNERS MEDICAL CME 2021
The Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) and Africa Partners Medical (APM) Continuing Medical Education (CME) is a collaboration between the two organizations to provide continuing professional development for health workers in Nigeria. The JUTH APM CME 2021 is the 11th in a recent series of CMEs held in Jos, Nigeria by the 2 organizations. The CME conference for 2020 did not hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions.
The 2021 CME explored the theme “The Return of Infectious Diseases” in different medical specialties from 6th to 8th September 2021. It was the first time the CME conference was organized in a hybrid manner. The faculty and attendees had the option of participating in person or virtually. The virtual component was via Zoom cloud meeting. The CME had a total attendance of 105 in which 25 were faculty. We provided scholarship for 66 medical students. We are very grateful for donations that we received for the scholarship. We especially thank Africa Partners Medical for their contribution of resource persons and a donation of $3985 for the conference. The organizers and those who were sponsored for the CME were especially appreciative of the gesture.
The CME involved both didactic lectures (in person and virtual) and workshop sessions. The initial lectures explored topics around COVID-19 while the later ones were on other infectious diseases with emphasis on challenging and neglected infectious diseases of the tropics. The workshop sessions were designed to impart skills that save lives and to empower participants to carry out appropriate problem-solving research. A new workshop session called “Becoming a doctor survival kit” which was targeted at the medical students and young doctors included this year. It was designed to explore and address the challenges that new doctors face when they begin practice. These were well attended and preliminary feedback about the program was strongly positive. The medical students were especially happy with the experience.
We look forward to the 2022 for a better and even more impactful CME conference. We are especially grateful to our Africa Partners Medical, members of the Namu foundation, JUTH and members of the LOC for their immense contributions to the success of the 2021 CME.
