Prof. Jan De Maeseneer, MD, PhD., EFPC president and chairman Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care and Vice-Dean Strategic Planning, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (Ghent University – Belgium) received this morning in Thailand at the occasion of the Prince Mahidol Award Conference a “Special Award for Excellence in Health Professional Education”.
The international conference focusing on “Transformative Learning for Health Equity” organized in cooperation with World Health Organization, World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, China Medical Board awarded during the closing ceremony this morning, a number of academics who have contributed worldwide to the improvement of the quality of health professional education.
Jan De Maeseneer received this award for his work on innovation of the medical education of Ghent University: from an additional discipline-based education (physics, chemistry, anatomy,…) towards an integrated, patient-oriented curriculum. In 2005, the Medical Education at Ghent University received a special quality award from the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organization for its contribution to social accountability and its community orientation, focusing on local and international needs. Actually, Prof. De Maeseneer is Secretary-General The Network: Towards Unity for Health that is active since 1979 in innovation of education in medical faculties worldwide with special attention for the needs of developing countries. He is also the coordinator of a Network in Africa, PRIMAFAMED, that explores innovative strategies to realize training of family physicians in local communities.
In Flanders, Prof. De Maeseneer is involved in the development of the interuniversitary education for family medicine, that is successful in turning a shortage in the recruitment of candidates for family medicine, into a surplus, responding to the needs at the primary care level in an aging society. On behalf of the Commission Dr. Tim Evans (World Bank) emphasized in the motivation for this award both the role of Jan De Maeseneer as a change agent and his contribution for networking worldwide in order to increase the contribution of institutions for health professional education to equity.