ISLAMABAD: The International Conference on Health Professionals’ Education, Research and Entrepreneurship (ICHPERE 2026) concluded at the Health Services Academy (HSA) with a focus on contextresponsive health professions education.
The conference was organised under the theme ‘Reimagining Health Professionals’ Education in the Global South: Power, Policy, and Possibility.
The second and concluding day featured three major plenary sessions, which focused on some of the most important contemporary challenges confronting health professions education, including professionalism, commercialisation, globalisation, accreditation, policy transfer, institutional governance, social accountability, research, entrepreneurship and the relationship between global educational standards and local realities.
The first plenary featured Prof Junaid Sarfraz Khan, Director Academics, HSA, who spoke on ‘Professionalism or Performative Professionalism? Identity Formation Under Global Pressure.
He was joined by Prof Sabena Jameel Choudhury, Prof Alam Sher Malik, Prof Sonia Ijaz Haider and Prof Lubna Baig.
The second plenary session brought together Prof Mahwish Arooj, Prof Ayesha Sumera Abdullah, Prof Mona Hamoud AlSheikh, Prof Zarrin Siddiqui and Dr Bhavani Veasuvalingam.Their discussions explored policy transfer, global standards and local realities, neocolonial influences in health professions education, the integration of research into curricula, and the impact of commercialism and neocolonialism on medical professionalism.
The third plenary session featured Prof Gominda Ponnamperuma, Prof Khalid Masood Gondal, Dr Kamran Sattar, Prof Sumera Badar Ehsan and Dr Ayesha Junaid.
The speakers addressed accreditation and quality assurance in the Global South, challenges in postgraduate medical education, social accountability, competency-based medical education and entrepreneurship, as well as knowledge production, research agendas and academic gatekeeping.
A central message that emerged from the plenary discussions was the need to place context ahead of compliance, strengthen the Global South’s role as a producer rather than merely a consumer of educational knowledge, keep professionalism and social accountability at the centre of educational reform, and promote institutional agency, leadership and responsible innovation.
The conference also recognised outstanding contributions across the Free Paper Oral Presentations, Poster Presentations and Experience Gallery.
In the Free Paper Oral Presentations, Prof Fouzia Sultana secured First Prize, Dr Gul Shaikh received Second Prize, while Prof Riaz Shahbaz Janjua and Prof Ambreen Shabbir were awarded Third Prize.