Scientific Plan for the Community Health & Family Medicine Department: 2021-2022

The Community Health and Medicine branch is a major pillar in building future doctors by teaching students the principles and methods of epidemiology, medical statistics, infectious and non-communicable diseases, in addition to teaching practical primary health care concepts regarding environmental and occupational health problems in Iraq. This branch also contributes to active participation in research activities and advisory work with other departments in the college in addition to the various university faculties and the beneficiaries of this scientific research by providing data related to the socio-demographic, health, occupational and environmental conditions of the population that can all be used to improve health services in the targeted study areas.

By teaching the health and disease modules, we aim to:

1. Qualifying doctors who are able to meet the preventive, curative, and rehabilitative needs of society.
2. Empowering students to understand the implications of epidemiological and health services data for their future practices.
3. Facilitate students' task in developing their practice of medicine, not only in terms of the benefit to individual patients but to the society as a whole.
4. Providing students with the necessary skills to critically assess evidence supporting potential disease risk factors or clinical interventions.
5. Supporting and strengthening research capabilities at the branch, college and health system levels.
6. Supporting and evaluating the required procedures for implementing the Community Health and Family Medicine system in Iraq.
7. Ensuring high quality in medical education and health services in accordance with the quality standards required locally and internationally.

 

Table 1: Faculty staff of the Department:

	Teacher’s name	Certificate	date	country	Date of appointment to the university	Scientific title	date obtained	Specialty	Note
	Rajaa Ahmed	PhD CM MPH DCM MBChB	2015 2008 2004	Iraq Lebanon Iraq	/	/	/	Public  Health Health Management and policy Community Medicine	Staff of Iraqi Ministry Of Health
	Husam Natiq	FIBMS- FM  MBChB	2009	Iraq	/	/	/	Iraqi Board of Family Medicine
	Ziyad Tareq	Consultant FIBMS- FM MBChB	2006	Iraq	/	/	/	Consultant  Iraqi Board- Family Medicine
	Huda Hassan	MSc.-CM MBChB.	2012	Iraq	/	/	/	MSc. Community Medicine
	Nada Hassan	FIBMS- FM MBChB.	2012	Iraq	/	/	/	Iraqi Board of Family Medicine
	Raya Habeeb	FIBMS- CM MBChB.	2013	Iraq	/	/	/	Iraqi Board of Community Medicine
	Jhoud Abdul Samad	FIBMS- FM MBChB.	2012	Iraq	/	/	/	Iraqi Board of Family Medicine

 

Table 2: Academic degrees and titles for teaching staff

 

Gender	bachelor degree	master's degree	doctorate	Total	assistant teacher	teacher	assistant professor	professor	Total
Male	0	0	3	3	0	0	0	0	0
Female	0	1	3	4	0	0	0	0	0

Table 3: "Administrative staff of the Department"

                                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scientific Modules of the department:

 

1. Health and Diseases in Population Module:

• Students’ Academic year: First – S2
• Scientific topics covered:

• Introduction to Epidemiology
• Prevalence Survey
• Health Information
• Comparing Populations and Mortality Rates
• Source of variation
• Cohort Studies
• Case-Control Studies
• Causality: Cause or Merely Association
• Randomized Controlled Trials
• Reviewing the Evidence
• Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP)

 

2. Health and Diseases in Society Module:

• Students’ Academic year: Third – S5
• Scientific topics covered:

• Introduction to the module
• Quality and safety in Healthcare
• Introduction to social science research methods
• Evidence-based practice
• Inequities and inequalities in health
• Lay beliefs about health & illness
• Health promotion
• Sociological approaches to chronic illness
• Perspectives on chronic illness: Patient reported outcomes
• Screening
• Organisation and structures of the NHS.
• Doctor’s view of clinical governance
• Doctors in management
• Introduction to resource allocation & healthcare economics
• The medical profession & its regulation
• Patient-professional relationships
• Patients’ evaluations of healthcare
• Complementary therapies: A patients’ perspective

 

 

3. Student’s Selective Courses:

• Students’ Academic year: Third – S5
• Scientific topics covered:

• Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases
• Communicable Diseases & Immunization

 

4. People and Disease Training Course:

• Students’ Academic year: Third – S5

 

The course aims:

The course title indicates that disease is experienced by people and signals the importance of considering the patient’s perspective. That’s why it aims to provide the students with the necessary knowledge and skills to ensure that they are ideally prepared for the responsibilities they will be carrying in their later professional life.

 

Course activities:

1. Presentations: the course include 15 presentations that will allow the students to contrast diseases in different body systems, and which may have dissimilar pathological processes.

 

2. Course Seminars: During the whole course period, students will have the following seminars:

1. What do you think being a doctor means?
2. How do patients present?
3. The health care process in Primary, Secondary & Tertiary care.
4. Links between learning in core modules and patients studied
5. Evidence and Research
6. The doctor-patient relationship
7. Reflective writing.
8. Assay-Dissertation writing.

Research activity by years

• (2021). Breast cancer among women in Basrah, Iraq: A descriptive study in BIRAD 1 & 2 screened cases. Basrah Journal of Surgery, 27(1), 51-58. doi: 10.33762/bsurg.2021.168438

 

• (2021). Study the Diarrheal Disease in Children Under 5 Years During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Basra. Annals of R.S.C.B., ISSN:1583-6258, Vol. 25, Issue 6, 2021, Pages. 9759 – 9863

 

• (2019). Knowledge assessment of female students of Southern Technical University in Basra-Iraq, regarding breast cancer and breast self-examination. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 22(1):SPe115.

 

Table 4: Training courses/ Seminars

	Name	Training Title	Date	Place
1	Rajaa Ahmed	Research Writing- Advanced	March 2022	Basrah Health Directorate- Training Center
2		Google Classroom – e-TOT	April 2022
3	Huda Hussein	SPSS	February 2022	Basrah Health Directorate- Planning Department
4	Raya Habeeb	Communication Skills	March 2022	Basrah Health Directorate- Preventive Department

 

 

8. Electronic schedules:

• Module name: Health and Diseases in Population:

 

 

• Module name: Health and Diseases in Society: