Andrew
Sunday Mail Reporter
The University of Zimbabwe’s (UZ) faculty of medicine and health sciences (FMHS) will host the 5th annual African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth) symposium beginning on Tuesday at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC).
The conference running under the theme: “Covid-19 Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Issues for Health Professions Education, Research and Service Delivery, will deliberate ways to improve healthcare on the continent.
Over 500 delegates from African tertiary institutions offering medical training will attend the three-day conference.
In a statement, UZ said: “AFREhealth works to achieve excellence in health professions education, research and service by influencing a new inter-professional collaboration that will result in sustainable and continuous quality improvement for the African population.
“This symposium will gather African health professionals from medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, laboratory science, physiotherapy, veterinary medicine, nutritionists, to deliberate on health issues in Africa.
“The meeting will provide a forum for constructive exchange of innovative ideas, sharing of experiences and building of lasting partnerships for improved healthcare in Africa.”
The symposium will also discuss societal issues affecting the continent which include climate change.
“The conference has four sub-themes as follows: innovation in health professions education — lessons from Covid-19 pandemic state for post-pandemic period, collaboration in research —African initiatives for strengthening research and collaboration across the continent and beyond,” the statement added.
“Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on service delivery and the requirements for quality-of-care post- pandemic and leadership in Africa on decolonisation, climate change, research and development.”
Online Reporter