Basic ideas on medical ethics.

Abstract: Introduction: Medical ethics means the moral principles, which should guide the members of the medical profession in the course of their practice of medicine and in relationship with their patients and other members of the profession. Objective: To recapitulate the matter to the medical practitioners so that they can apply them in course of their practice. Methodology: A search focused on the basic terminologies on medical ethics was made in Medline, PubMed and Cochrane database. The search captured citation on history of medical ethics. Both advances in medical ethics and advances in medicine and science with ethical ramifications were included. The topics span clinical medicine (end of life care and medical error), healthcare management (priority setting), science (biotechnology), and education (of medical ethics). Discussion & Conclusion: Core issues in in medical ethics: Autonomy, beneficence, non-malfeasance, justice – dignity, truthfulness and honesty. Different terms in the Field of Medical Ethics: Medical Etiquette, Professional infamous conduct, Professional death sentence, Professional secrecy, A physician should not commit any negligence or mal-practice. Islamic Medical Ethics: A Muslim physician derives his /her conclusion from rules of Islamic laws (Shariah). The goal of medical ethics is to improve the quality of patient care by identifying, analyzing, and attempting to resolve the ethical problems that arise in the practice of clinical medicine. Medical ethics is an important part of the undergraduate medical curriculum. It should not be left to a 'laissez-faire' process of osmosis from teachers to students.

Quality Assurance Scheme (QAS) in Medical & Dental Colleges in Bangladesh -Teacher's Knowledge.

This cross-sectional study was conducted with the objective to assess the teacher's knowledge about ongoing quality assurance scheme (QAS) at different government and nongovernment medical & dental colleges in Bangladesh. Teachers of different categories were the respondents of this study. Self administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data adopting simple random sampling. The study was conducted in 2008 & 2009. The study revealed that both government and nongovernment medical colleges are conducting the QAS in their respective institutions. The academic coordinator play a vital role to run the QAS and for phase coordination. Students also participate as the representative member of the committee. Existing infrastructure of QAS is performing at its best effort but needs further development for upgradation of the services with an aim to improve the performance of the institutes. Principles of QAS are accountability, selfevaluation and external peer review. Major areas of QAS are organizational & operational frameworks. Organizational framework consists of both academic council and course committee. External examiners are appointed by university. External assessors are appointed by academic council but needs faculty approval. Operational framework consists of course appraisal, faculty development, review scheme, & external review. The study recommends that quality assurance scheme (QAS) should be thoroughly implemented and evaluated by the national quality assurance body. Both the organizational and operational frameworks should run along with faculty development and review scheme. Teachers should be more oriented to update their knowledge for better practices of QAS.