Afghan Military Medical School Reopens, Enrolls Women in First Class of Cadets

Years ago, Afghanistan's military medical school was forced to close under the harsh rule of the Taliban. Its recent reopening in Kabul, in the spring of 2009, could help change the shape of medicine in Afghanistan.

US and Afghan officials hope that the military medical school will not only provide future physicians with the skills necessary to meet the challenge of delivering health care in the conflict-ridden country, but also will transform the way medicine is taught there.

“The quality of medical training in Afghanistan is poor now. Rather than retraining doctors who have been practicing for years, the best way to improve medical care is to improve the quality of training for new doctors,” said CDR Cary Harrison, MC, USN.

But perhaps the most progressive aspect of the new school is its class makeup: about one-quarter of students are women. Allowing Afghan women to attend medical school, or any school for that matter, was unheard of in the past.

The reopening of the Afghan military medical school comes at a time when the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police Force are slated to significantly increase their numbers. As part of its efforts to create a stable environment to defeat the Taliban, the US Department of Defense has made a 10-year commitment of funds to support the school.

The new school seeks to make significant changes to the way Afghan medical students are taught. Entrance to the school is competitive—this year's class of nearly 40 students drew more than 600 applications—and is based on merit, not military connections that a student's family may have. The curriculum follows a traditional European model that combines undergraduate and medical education in a 7-year program. Basic training and the first year of schooling are completed through the National Military Academy of Afghanistan, the Afghan equivalent of West Point.

While the military medical school will specifically train students who will be part of the Afghan army, its influence will be broader because the military students will complete their second, third, and fourth year of coursework at the Kabul Medical University (KMU). “One of our projects is to improve the quality of training for all students at KMU, as well as to teach military-specific curricula such as trauma training and cold-weather medicine, which would be open to all medical students at that university,” said Harrison.

Such exposure could be particularly important in this country. “In the turbulence of Afghanistan, any physician might find themselves called to heal the victims of war,” said CDR Kenneth Lankin, MC, USN, who is former liaison to the Afghan Ministry of Public Health. “The medical school will provide a long-term source of highly trained medical officers to care for the Afghan National Security Forces and their families.”

“Students want to be involved in providing care and security to people in such a war-torn society,” said LCDR Sunny Ramchandani, MC, USN, who helped establish the medical school's curriculum.

Students were chosen from all provinces of Afghanistan, and some will be sent to the Afghan National Army Regional Hospitals in their home provinces for much of their clinical training after completing their coursework. “On graduation, every effort will be made to assign the doctors to duty stations close to their home provinces,” said retired COL Gary Davis, MC, USA, who has been contracted by the US military and is the students' medical mentor. “This will ensure that even the remote regions will have well-trained physicians to provide state-of-the-art medical care for the soldiers and their dependants.”

One of the most progressive aspects of the school is its admission of women. Most Afghan women have not been allowed to learn to read and therefore cannot pass an entrance examination. However, the 9 female cadets accepted for medical training passed all entrance examinations and met all stringent scholastic and physical requirements for admission to the National Military Academy of Afghanistan. Additionally, they met the academic standards for admission to medical school as required by the Ministry of Higher Education of Afghanistan.

“I have a lot of admiration for these women. Girls in Afghanistan sometimes have acid thrown in their faces for going to school,” said Harrison. “As soon as these young women marry, they are likely to be told by their husbands that they can't go to school or work as a doctor any longer, but they persevere and are fighting hard to get a good education despite all the obstacles.”

Although a single medical school will not change many of the age-old traditions and inequalities in Afghanistan, US officials hope that it will contribute to progress in the country. They are optimistic that once the Afghan faculty is comfortable teaching the new curriculum, the school is optimally equipped, and students are meeting Afghan educational standards, the project will leave a lasting impact. “We're at the very beginning, but the legacy we leave here will have an influence for decades to come,” said Ramchandani.