Global Medical Education in Normal and Challenging Times

This book is written by several medical educators from developed as well as developing countries based on decades of experience in teaching. The unique experience gained during the COVID-19 pandemic has added new dimensions to the traditional pedagogy, andragogy, and heutagogy, documented here. The salient topics include distance learning, virtual classrooms, virtual workshops on OSCEs, open book exams, micro-learning, micro-credentialing, blended or digitalized curriculum delivery, academic leadership, communication skills, professionalism, telemedicine, bioethics, cyber clinics, artificial intelligence, etc. This book is used as a text or reference book by physicians, teachers, scholars, students, and medical universities for teachers' training, capacity building, and guidance on fundamental pillars of cognitive domains of knowledge, skills, and attitude, as well as factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive skills. It is also a source of guidance in faculty enhancement and toward continued quality improvement in medical education.


Dr. Shabih H.  Zaidi is a Surgeon, Medical Educator, and Medical Ethicist, based in London. He has extensive experience in the field of medical education, as he has been teaching since 1972. Over the years , he  progressed from Assistant professor to Professor, Chair, Dean, and Vice Chancellor.  He is the Founding Chancellor of the Al -Sadiq Virtual  University of Health Sciences (SIVU. www.sivu.alsadiquni.com), an iconic project of Medics International, a UN accredited NGO based in Princeton, NJ, USA. Dr. Zaidi has written and published over 200 articles, papers, editorials etc in high-impact indexed journals, and 12 books so far. Three of his last books published by Springer (Vertigo, Ethics in medicine, Teaching and Learning in medicine) have gained much popularity as c60,000 chapters have been downloaded by global knowledge seekers. He is currently engaged in writing a book on Virtue Medical Ethics and  Editing an Encyclopaedia of Medical ethics. He pioneered a couple of journals over time and has been on the editorial board of several international journals, where he contributes regularly. The  virtual University launched in May 2020 by  him , for dissemination of knowledge through e-learning engaging a vast number of medical educators from many countries has now become an entity of considerable repute.  A selection of lectures given by global educators in SIVU  have  been compiled by him and his co-editors in this book, called the Global Medical Education in Normal and Challenging Times. 

Dr. Shahid Hassan is a qualified and experienced Educator with an MHPE from Maastricht University Netherlands in 2005. He has worked as Medical Educator in University Sains Malaysia (USM), Head of Unit of Medical Education in University Putra Malaysia (UPM), University Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), and Director, IMU Centre for Education at International Medical University (IMU), Malaysia. He has been awarded with the WIPO and ITEX Gold Medal and Excellent Scientist Award for Innovative research. He has published over 130 research papers and five books. He is an overseas Editor of Pakistan Journal of ORL (PJORL) and Member of Editorial Board of Interdisciplinary Journal of Virtual Learning in Medical Sciences (IJVLMS). He has been the Vice President of Malaysian Association of Educators in Medicine and Health Sciences (MAEMHS) and Lead of Assessment Subgroup of Medical Educators Network (MedNet) Malaysia. Dr. Hassan has supervised more than 20 postgraduate theses in Otolaryngology and medical education and given more than 110 presentations from keynote address to free papers in national and international conferences and conducted more than 35 workshops. He is currently working as Professor and Associate Dean Academic and Head of Medical Education Department American University of Barbados School of Medicine. He is also the Co-director of ERA-SIVU joint Program on HPE for Certificate and Diploma. Dr Hassan's major contribution in recent years has been over 25 international webinars and 10 articles based on unprecedented challenges and experience of the COVID-19 era. His recently published eBook is on, 'Design and Development of Survey Questionnaire Using Likert Scale: From Validation to Usability' and yet another eBook in publication is about, Quantitative Research for  Educational Study Made Easy: Practical Statistics for Educators. Dr. Shahid Hassan is also an Otorhinolaryngologist with subspecialty in Head and Neck and Thyroid Surgery.

Dr. Shoaleh Bigdeli is a Professor at the Department of Medical Education, School of Medicine, and was Vice-director of the Center for Educational Research in Medical Sciences (CERMS) at Iran University of Medical Sciences (2018-2023). She received her doctorate in Curriculum Theories and Implementation from Simon Fraser University (SFU), Canada, as well as several certificates from FAIMER in medical education. Sheis an AMEE Associate Fellow (AFAMEE) and has been awarded in medical education research and teaching nationally and internationally. Dr. Bigdeli has supervised more than 30 postgraduate theses in medical education, given more than 100 presentations at universities and conferences, published more than 90 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and co-authored twelve books and book chapters. She is an editorial board member of several national and international medical education journals, including BMC Medical Education.

Dr.Zehra is a  PhD in Medical Education from the University Ambrosiana and MHPE from Aga Khan University. Dr Zehra is an Assistant Professor at the Department for Educational Development at The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.  She is the Director,  Master of Health Professions Education Programme at the Aga Khan University and lead faculty development program for health professionals. Dr Zehra is  Writer, Author, and Reviewer of several articles published in indexed journals, Invited Speaker in physical and virtual meetings on medical education, and Moderator and Facilitator of numerous webinars and workshops at the Aga Khan University and the Sadiq International Virtual University. Her special interests focus on faculty development, clinical supervision, feedback and Curriculum Development, though her other strength is instructional strategies which she teaches her postgraduate students doing their master's at the illustrious Aga Khan University , Karachi  ,Pakistan .