Canadian online medical school provides training, and hope, for Afghan women

On a recent Saturday, a group of young Afghan women enrolled in an online medical school logged in to check on their patients, moving a virtual stethoscope to listen to their heartbeats and shining a light in their eyes.

This is the Canadian Virtual Medical University Initiative, created by Karim Qayumi, a physician and professor of surgery at the University of British Columbia, when the Taliban banned women from attending university, including medical school.

Two young Afghan women who were attending medical school before the ban told The Globe and Mail that the online school has given them hope and motivation to continue their studies. The Globe is not naming the students to protect them from Taliban reprisals.

Dr. Qayumi, who was born and raised in Afghanistan but has been working in Canada for decades, said that without women physicians, there would be a disastrous gap in Afghanistan’s already fragile health care system.

He saw an opportunity to deploy CyberPatient, a 24/7 virtual hospital he invented that allows students to treat patients, practise their clinical skills and receive AI-generated feedback.

But students would also need a curriculum, and no online program existed. So Dr. Qayumi wrote one that covers the same material as traditional medical schools: basic medical sciences, pathology and basic clinical skills, full clinical competencies and an internship. However, the material is delivered differently.

Students study on their own and listen to lectures recorded by professors from schools such as UBC, Harvard and McGill. Level four is an in-person internship, and Dr. Qayumi has secured agreements with private hospitals in Afghanistan to support the initiative.

Currently, about 300 Afghan women – most of them in Afghanistan, but some in neighbouring countries – are enrolled in levels one through three.

The program and learning materials are in English. Professors at Arizona State University and the American University of Afghanistan, which is based in Qatar, volunteer their time getting students up to speed.

On Saturdays, students meet with volunteer professors from Canada, the United States and other countries over Zoom to discuss their work and progress.

The program officially launched last September, but developing the platform behind it was a decades-long journey. Dr. Qayumi invented CyberPatient in 2000 to close the gap between theory and practice in medical education, but the technology of the time was not fully up to the task. With support from UBC, he and his team developed a prototype in CD-ROM form that was studied for effectiveness at UBC and two Japanese universities. In 2006, the study was published in the British Journal of Medical Education.

In 2015, UBC asked Dr. Qayumi to revisit the development of CyberPatient because the technology was ready; the following year, he and his colleagues started developing the platform.

He said that when the program was first floated in November, 2023, about 250 women applied, so that January he went to Afghanistan and met with Taliban officials to propose the online school. He said they welcomed the idea but wanted to see proof that it would work.

He said he signed a memorandum of understanding with the Minister of Higher Education that said that if the pilot project was successful, the Taliban would allow all students, including women, to attend the online school. One condition of the agreement was that the Taliban would provide students and professors from eight government-controlled medical schools to monitor how the pilot program unfolded.

Dr. Qayumi enrolled 120 young men in the January-to-April pilot project. Last fall, he returned to Afghanistan, discussed the results and shared that The Lancet medical journal had published their work.

He said the officials were supportive and told him to prepare documents to register the school as an online university. As far as he knows, the documents have been submitted, but he’s still waiting for official approval. It is important for the Taliban to recognize the school, he added, because it would legitimize it in Afghanistan and guarantee that its graduates will be able to work there.

Dr. Qayumi does not need the Taliban’s approval, however. The school is international, so it can be registered anywhere. Registration, accreditation or recognition are essential to ensuring students can write the exams, such as the LMCC in Canada and USMLE in the U.S., needed to pursue residency programs and work in other countries.

He has started the process of registering the school in Canada and with an international accreditation body that is recognized by the World Federation for Medical Education. Once that’s done, its graduates will be able to work anywhere in the world.

He said he anticipates some pushback from those who believe medical school can’t be done online. But he’s not afraid of such objections because the school has state-of-the-art platforms and proof of the program’s success. It has also partnered with a German company, Lecturio, that provides free online theoretical knowledge.

“I am resolute in my belief that the moment has come to redefine the status quo through groundbreaking innovation and visionary solutions,” he said.

Dr. Qayumi said he wants to empower Afghan women so that, if all doors are closed to them in their own country, they will have an internationally recognized certificate in their hands that will allow them to leave Afghanistan and work anywhere.

He said he and his colleagues are also preparing a course for high school-aged girls to study at home so they can prepare to enter their online school.

A 24-year-old student who was online that Saturday said she wants to become a gynecologist and support women in Afghanistan. It’s challenging, she said, not knowing what the future holds. Most of the time she works on her phone and has to borrow her sister’s laptop to use CyberPatient. Internet service is expensive and sometimes cuts out.

Another student, who is 22 and living in neighbouring Pakistan, said she wants to become a neurosurgeon. She hopes one day to complete her residency in the United States and return to Afghanistan to help people. She said she looks forward to her Saturday class, adding that the school has boosted her skills and improved her mental health.

She said she knows a lot of women who want to participate in the program but don’t have electricity or a computer. And some of her friends have pointed out that the school isn’t yet accredited. She said she worries about that – but understands the power of education. “It matters. And no one can take away your knowledge from you.”

Dr. Qayumi said that while Afghanistan is the immediate priority, he’s hoping to expand the program to other countries.

He pointed to statistics from the United Nations that show that, by 2030, there will be 18 million fewer physicians. Virtual medical education, he said, could play an important role in the future of training doctors.

“My ultimate goal is to provide very high-level virtual medical education – North American standards of virtual medical education – to all developing nations around the world.”