Conference on advances in medicine opens

Kumasi, Oct. 9, GNA - A four-day international conference on "Advances in Medicine", opened in Kumasi on Monday. The conference, which is the fourth of its kind and formed part of the Continuing Medical Education (CME) being organised by the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in collaboration with the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Olmsted Outreach and the Africa Medical Partners of the USA.

Participants from the USA, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Uganda, will be updated in the management of cardiovascular diseases; high risk obstetric care; trauma management and road accident prevention; recent advances in sickle cell and cancer screening and management, which are all very relevant to medical practice in the country and the West Africa Sub-Region.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Chief Executive of the KATH, pointed out that, with the changing lifestyle resulting in the development of diseases, which were hitherto uncommon in the country, there was the need for medical personnel to speed up in responding to the changing health needs of the people.

He said medical personnel could only do that, if they cultivated the culture of constant renewal of their knowledge in medicine, adding that, the conference would provide them with the opportunity to keep pace with developments in the profession so as to enhance their capacity to deliver better service to their patients.

Dr Nsiah-Asare observed that, resource limitations had undermined the institution of effective and well structured continuous education programme for medical personnel in the Sub-Region and appealed to medical doctors in Ghana and the Sub-Region in general to take full advantage of the conference to stay abreast with modern trends in medicine.

He called on health institutions to make refresher courses and post-basic and post-graduate training a priority by making adequate budgetary allocations for sponsorship of their staff for such training programmes.

Dr Nsiah-Asare appealed to the Ministry of Health, corporate bodies and other health institutions to fully support the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons to strengthen post-graduate training programmes in the country.