Learning and Career Development in Neurosurgery: Values-Based Medical Education

The neurosurgical, surgical and medical training and practice models have to keep up with the technological revolution in the 21st Century as our lives changed on a swift base. Making bioethics and metacognition a cornerstone in medical education and practice will flourish our humane societies.

Metacognition is thinking about one’s thinking, to plan, monitor and assess one’s understanding and performance. By adherence to medical ethics and Values-Based Medicine (VsBM) as guiding principles, we can develop benevolent medical practice. To enhance knowledge application, skills, and character qualities in realms beyond the immediate context in which they were learned.

In this book, we developed a framework on how to evolve medical education and training by utilizing hi-tech. We divided the book into five principal components; Current and traditional root analysis of the learning process, Ethics and metacognition of education, learning and career development, Obstacles, difficulties and setbacks in learning and career development process, Learning in the digital era, and Mentorship.

The author believes we are entering a new era of information technology, which will have a significant impact on the education, sciences, strategies and philosophy. Therefore, in preparation for this colossal transformation, the author brings together the best brains in the neurosurgical field from around the globe. Twenty distinguished Professors of Neurosurgery and educators from Canada, the USA, Colombia, the UK, Italy, the Netherland, India, Japan, China, Rwanda, Egypt and Saudi Arabia gathered their experiences and thoughts in this book to shade light on an evolving world that will be the norm in near future.

Ahmed Ammar, MBChB, DMSc, FICS, FACS, has been a Professor and Consultant Neurosurgeon at the KFHU, Dammam University since 1987. He graduated from the Medical School in 1977 and started his Neurosurgery training program at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden in 1979. He subsequently moved to Japan’s Shinshu University, where he completed his doctorate in Neurosurgery in 1984. This was followed by a fellowship at the Dept. of Neurosurgery, Pittsburgh University, USA, in 1989.

He is an educator, he shared in writing the first Neurosurgery Training Program in Saudi Arabia in 1987, since that time he wrote at least 6 fellowships training programs in Saudi Arabia and other countries. He wrote the first Head Trauma Protocol for MOH, SA 2013, and has published over 150 manuscripts in international journals and chapters in 14 books and 3 books. He was editor of the books “Ethics in Neurosurgery Practice”, and "Hydrocephalus" published by Springer in 2014 and 2017.

Prof.Ammar has a special interest in pediatric neurosurgery. His current scientific research focuses on the long-term outcomes of mild head trauma (in progress), the long-term outcomes of hydrocephalus (finished) and the Wide Genome for Epilepsy (in progress). He has also designed and patented four neurosurgical instruments and been recognized with the following awards: the Life Time Achievement in Medicine/ Neurosurgery Award, Venous International Foundation, 2016, Walter E Dandy Neurosurgical International Society Award, 2015, Saudi Neurosurgical Society Medal of Appreciation 2014, and the Saud Neuroscience Society Appreciation Award 2009. He has 8 patents from USA, Egypt and other countries.