The study highlights the divergent interpretation of medical professionalism between Western and Arabian contexts. The Four-Gates Model may work for faith-driven societies, but not for non-Muslims Arabs students or teachers or in institutions with humanistic values.

Objective:To review the current status of departments of medical education in all public and private medical colleges located in the city of Lahore, Pakistan.Methods:This was a quantitative, cross sectional descriptive study; conducted from March to October 2015 in Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PM&DC) recognized medical colleges located in Lahore, Pakistan. Respondents were the heads of departments of medical education or any other well-informed faculty member. A questionnaire was prepared to obtain information about the current status of the departments of medical education (DMEs). The investigator personally visited all medical colleges for data collection. Both verbal and written consents were obtained and the questionnaire was administered to the resource persons. The data was organized and entered in SPSS for descriptive analysis.Results:Out of the 18 medical colleges in Lahore, six (33.3%) belonged to public sector and 12 (66.7%) were from private sector. All medical colleges reported to have a functional DME. However, eight had established DMEs during the past five years. Only one (5.6%) head of DME was working on full-time basis. Eleven (61.1%) heads of DMEs did not have any formal qualification in medical education. Eight (44.4%) colleges claimed to have adequate human resources for DME. Thirteen (72.2%) colleges mentioned that adequate financial resources were available for running DMEs. It is encouraging to see that DMEs in private sector medical colleges are playing increasingly significant role in managing educational activities. Similarly, the senior management of private sector seems to be relatively more eager to promote educational activities.Conclusion:There is an increasing recognition towards establishing DMEs in the medical colleges, but their infrastructure, proper functioning and availability of human and financial resources are serious impediments requiring immediate attention.

A three-step approach (orientation workshop, vignettes development, and teaching professionalism) proved effective for faculty development for learning and teaching of professionalism. Professionalism can be taught using vignettes that demonstrate professionalism dilemmas in a particular context.

To the best of our knowledge, the LAMPS is the first context-specific inventory on medical professionalism attitudes in the Arabian context.

Objective: There are growing concerns towards the quality of medical education in Pakistan. To help strengthen accreditation processes, this study identifies the challenges towards quality assurance of Basic Medical Education in Pakistan. Methods: A qualitative case study was carried out from March to August 2018. Participants included inspectors from various disciplines in both public and private medical colleges, and medical educationists from Pakistan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 inspectors, while focus group discussion included 10 medical educationists. All the interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was conducted to capture the intricacies of meaning within the data. Results: Data identified 14 sub-themes grouped under three major themes. Challenges towards quality assurance included mounting political influence, commercialism in medical education, weak regulatory capacity of accrediting body, violation of rules, lack of valid accreditation standards and skilled inspectors. Conclusion: Quality assurance of Basic Medical Education in Pakistan involves various systemic, resource and personnel related challenges. The accrediting body needs to bring major reforms in its accreditation system and strengthen its regulatory and technical educational capacity to ensure the quality of medical education in nearly 168 medical and dental colleges of the country. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.2.1319 How to cite this:Khan AW, Sethi A, Wajid G, Yasmeen R . Challenges towards quality assurance of Basic Medical Education in Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(2):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.2.1319 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Large proportion of Asian populations have moderate to severe periodontal disease and a substantial number are anticipated to be at high risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This study reviews epidemiology and association of periodontal and CVDs from the South-Asian region. Observational studies and clinical trials published during January 2001–December 2012 focusing association between periodontitis and CVDs in South-Asian countries were retrieved from various databases and studied. Current evidence suggests that both periodontal and CVDs are globally prevalent and show an increasing trend in developing countries. Global data on epidemiology and association of periodontal and CVDs are predominantly from the developed world; whereas Asia with 60% of the world's population lacks substantial scientific data on the link between periodontal and CVDs. During the search period, 14 studies (5 clinical trials, 9 case–controls) were reported in literature from South-Asia; 100% of clinical trials and 77% case–control studies have reported a significant association between the oral/periodontal parameters and CVD. Epidemiological and clinical studies from South-Asia validate the global evidence on association of periodontal disease with CVDs. However, there is a need for meticulous research for public health and scientific perspective of the Periodontal and CVDs from South-Asia.

<p><strong>Background:</strong><strong>  </strong>Learning styles are the ways students learn, intake and process new information. The contribution of learning styles for educational quality is evident and have important implications to develop effective curricula. Teachers can effectively plan instructional activities if they know the learning styles of students. This study was conducted to find out the preferred learning styles of medical and physiotherapy students.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Methods:</strong><strong>  </strong>This cross sectional descriptive study was conducted at Azra Naheed Medical College Lahore from January to March 2014. Honey and Muffard Learning Style Questionnaire (LSQ) was used to assess the preferred learning styles. The medical students of 3rd year and 6th semester physiotherapy class were invited for the study. The collected data was organized and analyzed by the use of statistical tools.</p><p><strong>Results:</strong><strong>  </strong>120 students participated in this study, out of which 60 (50 %) were students of MBBS class whereas 60 (50 %) were of physiotherapy class. 48 (40%) were male students and 72 (60%) were female students. Both the groups have reflector as dominating learning style with a minor difference of (40%) and (42.5%) for medical and physiotherapy respectively.</p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong><strong>  </strong>Students have different learning styles and require versatile instructional and assessment strategies. Preferred learning style of medical and physiotherapy students found in this study is reflector, however all the learning styles are present in both groups.<strong></strong></p>

Objective: To explore the appropriateness of WFME Basic Medical Education (BME) standards to Pakistani context. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey of faculty, graduates and students of five Masters’ in Health Professions Education programmes was carried out from Jul-Dec 2017. Participants were asked to rate the appropriateness of WFME-BME basic standards to Pakistani context on a fourpoint Likert scale (Strongly Disagree through to Strongly Agree). They were also asked for additional comments, if any. Descriptive statistics were carried out for quantitative data, while content analysis for qualitative data. Results: A total of 127/200 participants responded (63.5%). For all major areas (106 standards), 97.7% responses (n=13,149) were positive while only 2.3% (n=313) were negative. Ninety-six standards got more than 95% positive response while only 10 standards in three major areas got more than five percent negative response. These include five standards from major area Mission and Outcomes, one from Educational Programme and four from Students. Conclusions: This is the first study exploring the appropriateness of WFME-BME standards for accreditation in Pakistan. We found that all the areas, sub-areas and standards are largely appropriate. We recommend further deliberation on 10 standards with more than five percent negative responses, regarding their contextualization to Pakistan and the development of guidelines and possible reconsiderations in WFME future revisions. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.5.882 How to cite this:Wajid G, Sethi A, Khan RA, Aamir HS. World Federation for Medical Education: Appropriateness of Basic Medical Education standards in Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(5):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.5.882 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.