- Avicenna Directories
The Avicenna Directories project, named after
Avicenna , was announced in March 2008. Educating health professionals: the Avicenna project "The Lancet", Volume 371 pp 966 – 967] The objective of the project is to create new web-based global Directories of universities, colleges and schools for all the academic professions in health – medicine, pharmacy, public health and so on.Background
The
World Health Organization (WHO) has published a World Directory of Medical Schools since 1953. The last printed edition - the seventh – was published in 2000. [World Health Organization. World Directory of Medical Schools. 7th edn. Geneva. WHO 2000] In August 2008, WHO published this seventh edition of the World Directory electronically, together with updates received by WHO up to December 2007. [ [http://www.who.int/hrh/wdms/en/index.html World directory of medical schools Final updates through December 2007] ]The starting point for the Avicenna Directories will be the existing World Directory of Medical Schools, which will be expanded and brought up-to-date. Although there have been some electronic updates to the World Directory of Medical Schools, much of the information is out of date, having been collected well before 2000. An electronic resource will be easier to keep up to date than a printed book, and will be more comprehensive.
Development
An important part of the expansion will be additional data on the quality assurance, including accreditation, of each school. This information is of increasing importance at a time when the number of relevant higher education institutions is increasing rapidly in some parts of the world. To know the quality of the education that is being provided is important.
Following this start with medical schools, the Avicenna Directories will sequentially encompass pharmacy schools, schools of public health, and the other academic health professions. [ [http://www.avicennadirectories.org/ Avicenna homepage – University of Copenhagen ] ]
Responsibility
The office of the Avicenna Directories rests with the
University of Copenhagen , Denmark. In August 2007, the WHO and the University signed an agreement, which transferred responsibility for administration and publication of the Directories to the University of Copenhagen with the assistance of the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME). [http://www.wfme.org/] WHO will continue as partner of the programme and take part in data collection as before, andUNESCO and other partners [ [http://avicenna.ku.dk/partners// Partners – University of Copenhagen ] ] will also support the work of WHO and the University of Copenhagen.References
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