WCMC-Q Healing Hands essay winners

June, 2012

Three Doha high school students will be jetting off to the United States on Doctors of the Future summer scholarships as part of their prize for winning a prestigious medical essay writing competition organized by Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q).

Ali Mohsen Hajji, a student at Qatar Academy, Hamad Nasser Al-Naimi, from the Omar Bin Al Khattab Education Complex for Boys and Hessa Khalid Al-Hail, from the Al Bayan Education Complex for Girls, will enjoy a fully funded, two-week experience of a lifetime at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, where they will visit prominent research laboratories and spend time with distinguished Weill Cornell physicians in major New York hospitals.

The winners and other participants were honored at a reception hosted by WCMC-Q Dean, Dr. Javaid Sheikh.

As part of its community outreach program, WCMC-Q encourages Qatari nationals who are considering a career in medicine to pursue academic excellence. This year the annual Healing Hands high school essay competition encouraged young people to share their views on becoming a doctor in Qatar. The competition was first launched in 2008 and this year it was expanded to offer three scholarships.

Appreciating the Past to Achieve the Future was the theme of this year’s essay. In the midst of other rapid changes, Qatar has taken great leaps forward to build a solid healthcare system. Yet, the achievements of the present rise from the foundations of the past and are shaped by our vision for the future of healthcare in Qatar. Students were asked to consider what the healthcare system in Qatar was like during their grandparents’ time and what medical means were important then. In an 800-word essay, the students were also required to consider the rapid changes in healthcare over the past five decades, give an opinion on the advances and where they see medicine in Qatar in the next 20 years.

For Hamad Nasser Al-Naimi, the award came as a reward for hard work and perseverance. A high achieving student, Hamad said he was looking forward to the trip and some new experiences. “This is a wonderful opportunity for me. I will make the most of it and hopefully it will be the start of a career plan for me. I am so pleased. This is one of the best things that has happened to me.”

The internationally renowned research facilities at Cornell University in the U.S. excite Hessa Khalid Al-Hail and she sees this as a new venture that may open doors to the future. She is still undecided on a career path but university education and a career in medicine remains a firm option. “I am just so happy to have been selected,” she said. “I will make the most of this opportunity. It will serve me well for a future career.”

The students will also participate in a one-week introduction to research programs in the lab of Dr. Khaled Machaca, WCMC-Q’s associate dean for research.

While there they will shadow two post-doctoral researchers and contribute as much as possible to different research techniques that include:

• Expression of proteins in the Xenopus oocyte
• Biochemical analysis of proteins, DNA and RNA
• Physiological recordings (electrophysiology and calcium imaging)
• Imaging

This is the first year that such an opportunity has been offered to the winners of the essay competition.

In New York, they will be hosted by Dr. Ronald G. Crystal, professor and Chairman of the Department of Genetic Medicine and the Bruce Webster Professor of Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. Dr. Crystal has hosted exceptional Qatari high school students in his research laboratories and during his clinics since the program’s inception, five years ago. Each year, the students spend two weeks fully immersed in various clinical medicine experiences, clinical research and laboratory work.

“This experience helps the students learn what it is like to be a physician scientist by combining work in the lab with clinical rounds, physician shadowing and observation of clinical procedures,” Dr. Crystal said.

“These students have expressed a desire to become physician scientists and we hope that these two weeks provide the students with a sense of what it’s like to be a scientist as well as a physician and help to prepare them for their future roles in biomedical research.

“Each year, we meet new students who bring their unique perspective to the program. We are excited to help play a role in developing the careers of some of Qatar’s future leaders in biomedical research and patient care.”

The other participants were: Nasser Marzook Bin Marzook, from Musab Bin Omair Independent School; Sara Ali Al-Quradaghi, Khulood Mohammed Al-Malki, and Fatima Ahmed Kafood, all from Al Bayan Education Complex for Girls; Essa Abdulla Al-Jehani, of Doha Secondary Independent School for Boys; Shafia Khalid Al Mohannadi, from Amna Bint Wahab Independent School for Girls; Maryam Yousef Al Shaibani, of Qatar Academy; Sara Musa Al Meer, from Al Eman School for Girls; and Omair Ali Al Nuaimi, from Omar Bin Al Khattab School.