Standardizing the Health Care in Pakistan

Abstract

In early nineties, by default, as a young Assistant
Professor of medicine, I attended a workshop on
“medical education; planning and evaluation”, at the
CPSP's National teacher training center, Karachi.
Those days' participants were paid for taking their
time off and attending such an activity. It brought
me close to Late Professor Fazal Ilahi and Professor
Naeem Jafri. They instilled in us that in order to
evaluate a candidate or a performance, you need to
measure it. That evaluation could only be done if the
quality being assessed was seen, being done, and that
it was observable and measurable. It was further
emphasized that in order to measure competence
you had to compare it with a minimum standard,
which when exhibited by a candidate would satisfy
the examiner about minimal competence of the
candidate and in turn the examiner or a set of
examiners could declare the candidate in possession
of minimal competence to pass. We discussed how
the process of measuring could be made more
objective, reducing personal biases. It led to
emphasis on checklists and rating scales.