Match Day success for WCM-Q students
Students of WCM-Q’s Class of 2020 receiving their white coats at the beginning of the medical program they are soon to complete. Students matched at elite medical institutions in Qatar and the US.
Final-year medical students of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) have secured residencies at some of the world’s most renowned academic health centers to continue their training after they graduate in May.
The medical students matched at residency training programs at leading healthcare institutions in Qatar and the US, including Hamad Medical Corporation, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, Case Western/University Hospital Cleveland, Ohio, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center/University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, among others.
The 32 students of WCM-Q’s Class of 2020 who matched will join their residency programs in the fall to begin training in their chosen specialties, which this year are dermatology, general surgery, internal medicine, interventional radiology, neurology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, pediatrics and psychiatry.
Qatari national Abdulla Al-Mulla matched at Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in Richmond Virginia, where he will join the pediatrics residency program. Abdulla said: “Finding out where I had matched was quite an overwhelming experience. I am so happy to have matched at VCU and really looking forward to starting the next chapter in my life, but at the same time I'm a little sad that a very happy chapter at WCM-Q in drawing to a close. I’ve had a really great time here and I know I’ll miss it a lot.”
The annual Match Day event, which pairs soon-to-graduate medical students with residency training programs, is highly competitive. This year more than 40,000 US and international applicants submitted program choices for 37,256 available positions. Likewise, gaining acceptance to the highly regarded residency programs at HMC requires extremely high levels of academic achievement and clinical excellence.
WCM-Q alumni who complete their residency training at elite institutions in Qatar and the US frequently go on to work in the healthcare sector in Qatar, explained Dr. Thurayya Arayssi, Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education and Continuing Professional Development. “We are extremely fortunate that many of our graduates join the excellent residency programs at HMC and then become local consultants making huge contributions to the health of the nation,” she said. “Similarly, many alumni who go the US for their residencies return to Qatar after completion, which also gives the local healthcare sector a great boost. I extend my most sincere congratulations to the Class of 2020 for matching at truly excellent institutions in Qatar and the US.”
Menatalla Mekhaimar matched at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, where she will join the internal medicine residency program. She said: “I am overjoyed to have matched at Mount Sinai and excited that I will be living in New York for the next three years. I chose Internal Medicine because I loved it when I did my clinical rotations at Hamad and my sub-internship at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York - I like that you get to spend a lot of time with patients and I really enjoy the diagnostic reasoning you do as a team. I’m sure the next three years are going to be really exciting, challenging and rewarding.”
She added: “I’ve had a wonderful time at WCM-Q; the teaching has been excellent and I've loved my experience here.”
Dr. Javaid Sheikh, Dean of WCM-Q, congratulated the students. He said: “We are immensely proud of the unstinting pursuit of excellence in academic achievement and patient care demonstrated by the Class of 2020. I offer them my warmest congratulations for achieving matches as such prestigious institutions and I look forward to seeing them thrive in their new roles.”