Number of Citations: 0

Submitted: 30 April 2024
Accepted: 28 August 2024
Published online: 1 October, TAPS 2024, SP01, 25-26
https://doi.org/10.29060/TAPS.2024-SP01/SP009

Wei-Han Hong¹, Chan Choong Foong¹ & Jessica Grace Cockburn^2,3

¹Medical Education & Research Development Unit (MERDU), Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia; ²The Institute for Education Research, ³The Department of Surgical Oncology, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Canada

I. INTRODUCTION

The ASEAN Medical Deans Summit (AMDS) is an annual event involving members of the ASEAN Medical Schools Network (AMSN) (https://aseanmedschool.com/). Established in 2012, the network’s objectives are to promote friendship and collaboration among the leading medical schools in ASEAN; to achieve excellence in medical education and healthcare; to share human resources and assist one another in capacity building in medical education and research; and to work as one community as part of the ASEAN Vision 2020. With the theme “Towards the Development of Future-Ready ASEAN Health Professionals” at the 12^th AMDS in July 2023, harmonisation of curricula across ASEAN to promote education without borders was one of the collaborative efforts amongst all schools to discuss on strategic approaches to achievement of (i) ASEAN graduate profile; (ii) ASEAN Collaborative Learning; (iii) Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and (iv) ASEAN Faculty Development. The delegates were assigned to four groups discussing the various strategic approaches. With the participation from the various member of the AMDS, we have discussed on an appropriate graduate profile which may be utilised by members of the network in ensuring the competencies achieved by the medical students upon graduation. This will enable members of the AMSN to promote mobility and offer exchanges to medical students within this region.

II. ASEAN GRADUATE PROFILE

The ASEAN graduate profile utilised for discussion was developed through two cycles of projects – the Tuning Asia South East (TASE) (Yusoff & Trigt, 2019) and Measuring and Comparing Achievements of Learning Outcomes in Higher Education in Asia (CALOHEA) (ASEAN University Network, 2024; Visser, 2021). These capacity-building projects were funded by the European Commission, Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and were co-coordinated by the ASEAN University Network (AUN) (ASEAN University Network, 2024). In TASE, the competencies of a medical graduate were outlined and discussed thoroughly with participating members from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar.

The outcome of the project resulted in a framework for graduate’s competencies in South East Asia region. This framework was further enhanced in CALOHEA with the use of Regional Subject-Specific Qualifications and Assessment Reference Frameworks resulting in the SEA-CALOHEA Medical Competency Framework to permit greater comparability of institutional degree programme profiles.

During the summit, members of the team were introduced to the CALOHEA framework and the domains. The domains are (i) Health & Wellbeing; (ii) Ethics & Humanities; (iii) Integrated Medical Knowledge; (iv) Clinical Practice; (v) Quality Practice and (vi) Professional Behaviour. Each of the domains were discussed alongside the subdomains in the educational domains of Knowledge, Skills and Responsibilities.

III. DISCUSSION

The AMDS working members discussed on SEA-CALOHEA Medical Competency Framework which was proposed to be utilised as the foundation to an ASEAN graduate profile. The essential of demonstrating and applying basic and clinical medical sciences with appropriate skills were agreed upon. For the domain of Clinical Practice, graduates are expected to demonstrate appropriate knowledge, skills and responsibilities in history taking, clinical reasoning, clinical diagnosis, clinical management and patient safety. Graduates are also expected to demonstrate responsibilities as junior doctors with the highest standards of ethics and humanities while recognising diversity in the region. The domain of Quality Practice outlined the needs for graduates to demonstrate critical and innovative thinking, research skills, digital skills, financial skills for non-manager, practice evidence-based medicine and understanding the medico-legal issues in clinical practice.

The core of the framework centres on the Health & Wellbeing domain, where medical graduates are to demonstrate and apply the knowledge and understanding encompassing personal, family, community and population care as junior doctors with the knowledge, skills and responsibilities of their integrated medical knowledge, clinical practice, ethics and humanities, and quality practice. The domain of Professional Behaviour is an overarching competency required, where graduates are expected to perform appropriate professional behaviours with appropriate skills when performing responsibilities as a junior doctor. This domain consists attributes of teamwork and leadership, resilience, self-care, professional values, social and environment accountability, life-long learning skills and communication skills. The working members thought this through and agreed that the domains discussed could be utilised as the graduate profile for the region.

IV. THE WAY FORWARD

With an endorsed graduate profile, each higher education institution in ASEAN may utilise the profile in the curriculum review processes in ensuring a standardised outcome of the medical graduates. Following an agreed graduate profile, the AMDS members could propose possible educational activities to promote mobility, not only amongst medical students, but also faculty members regionally. In a long term, harmonisation of curricula across ASEAN could lead to mutual recognition of medical degrees.

Notes on Contributors

HWH and FCC was responsible for conceptualisation the paper. HWH, FCC and JGC were responsible for the discussion. HWH was responsible for the first draft of the manuscript. FCC and JGC provided their opinions and suggestions. All authors revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge members of the group – Professor Dr Apichat Asavamongkolkul (Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University), Asst. Professor Dr Kanokwaroon Watananirunwho (Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University), Dr Fazean Irdayati Idris (PAPRSB Institute of Health Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam), Professor Dr Angela Aguilar (University of the Philippines College of Medicine), Ms Pearl Yin (Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore), Dr. Murti Andriastuti, Sp.A(K) (Universitas Indonesia) and Professor Dr Zamri Radzi (Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Malaya) who have participated actively in the discussion during the AMDS workshop. The authors would also like to acknowledge the CALOHEA project research group led by the University of Groningen and co-funded by the European Union for the use of the Graduate Profile Framework.

Funding

There is no funding allocated for this paper.

Declaration of Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

References

ASEAN University Network. (2024).  CALOHEA Project. Retrieved March 30, 2024, from https://www.aunsec.org/aun-action/external-collaborations/calohea

Visser, M. (2021). Measuring and Comparing Achievements of Learning Outcomes in Higher Education in Asia (CALOHEA). Retrieved 22 March 22 2024, from https://calohea.org/

Yusoff, M. S. B., & Trigt, A. V. (Eds.). (2019). Reference points for the design and delivery of degree programmes in medicine. Deusto University Press.

*Hong Wei-Han
Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur,
Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
+603- 7967 5739
Email: weihan@um.edu.my