Match Day success for WCM-Q's future doctors

Students of WCM-Q’s graduating class celebrated after ‘matching’ at some of the world’s most respected healthcare institutions.
The medical students, who graduated as doctors in May, matched with residency training programs at leading healthcare institutions in Qatar and the US, including Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Case Western/University Hospital Cleveland, Massachusetts General Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and Virginia Commonwealth University.
This year’s graduating class has 13 Qatari nationals, the highest number of any graduating class in WCM-Q’s history. The graduating students will join their residency training programs in the fall and in their chosen specialties, which this year comprise anesthesiology, pediatric neurology, neurology, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics-gynecology and pediatrics.
Khalid Al-Marri was accepted for the family medicine residency program at Hamad Medical Corporation.
He said: “I’m really excited to be joining HMC and to have the chance to serve my community. I chose to train as a family physician as they are very often the first point of contact for patients, which will allow me to help ensure people are able to access the care they need. I hope to one day subspecialize in sports medicine as this will be useful to Qatar during the World Cup in 2022.” Matching is a crucial step in a doctor’s career and the annual Match Day event is highly competitive - this year 37,103 applicants vied for just 33,167 positions. Students and their families of the Class of 2018 attended a Match Day ceremony held at WCM-Q to hear the results of their applications soon after they were announced by the National Resident Matching Program in Washington, DC. Match Day marks the culmination of four years of medical training for WCM-Q students, who are awarded a US-accredited M.D. degree by Cornell University.
Fatima Al-Maadid will join the pediatric neurology residency program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, US. She said: “I’m so happy to have matched at MGH and I’m really looking forward to beginning my training in a specialty that I love. I feel that the education I have received at WCM-Q has given me a very strong foundation for success and I’m very grateful to everyone who has supported me during my time here.”
Fatima has ambitions to complete a fellowship in the US after her residency but hopes to return to Qatar to serve her community in the future.
Dr. Javaid Sheikh, dean of WCM-Q, said: “We are extremely proud of our talented future doctors for matching at such prestigious institutions and very happy that all their hard work has been rewarded. It is also wonderful news that 13 of our graduates this year are Qatari nationals, which is a record high for WCM-Q.”