Top U.S. medical schools engage with WCMC-Q students

Dr Marcellina Mian (front center) said the event was a chance for residency program directors to experience the excellence of the WCMC-Q curriculum, but also an opportunity for students to gain insight into what program directors look for in a candidate.

Residency program directors from some of the world’s best medical schools visited WCMC-Q to meet with students and faculty at the college’s annual Residency Program Directors’ Symposium.

This year’s event brought 17 residency program directors to WCMC-Q from elite medical schools and teaching hospitals across the U.S., such as Rochester General Hospital, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital.

The symposium gives residency program directors an opportunity to get to know WCMC-Q and its facilities, learn about the college’s curriculum, engage with students and tour Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), WCMC-Q’s principal clinical training partner.

Residency program directors are key figures in medical education because of their central role in admitting medical school graduates to highly competitive residency programs, where graduates continue their clinical training and pursue a specialty in a chosen field.

Dr. Marcellina Mian, associate dean for medical education, said: “We always look forward to welcoming residency program directors to WCMC-Q so that they can appreciate the academic rigor of our curriculum and see the dedication and talent of our students. It is also a great opportunity for the students to gain some insight into what residency program directors look for in a candidate so that they can maximize their chances of gaining acceptance to a very high quality program after they have graduated from WCMC-Q.”

WCMC-Q’s most recent graduating class, the Class of 2014, achieved an unprecedented 100 percent U.S. match rate last year as every student who sought a place in a U.S. residency program secured one through the National Residency Matching Program. The Cornell University M.D. degree that the college awards its graduates is the only U.S.-accredited M.D. degree given outside the United States. It is a goal of WCMC-Q to have its graduates return to Qatar upon completion of their training to contribute to the growth of the country’s healthcare system in line with the standards of excellence set out in Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Health Strategy.

The theme of this year’s symposium was ‘Leadership Training in Graduate Medical Education’ and the four-day event featured keynote addresses by five visiting residency program directors, including Dr. Sania Amr of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, and Dr. Jeffrey Chipman of the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis. There was also a keynote address by WCMC-Q alumna, Dr. Amila Husic, who recounted her experiences as an international student and as a general surgery resident at Lahey Clinic Medical Center, Massachusetts, and her subsequent return to her home country of Bosnia and Herzegovina to work in the healthcare system there. Dr. Husic expressed great appreciation for the high quality of education she received at WCMC-Q and HMC.

The symposium also featured presentations about WCMC-Q’s curriculum by senior faculty, as well as student case study presentations, student research poster presentations, and roundtable discussions between program directors and students. Delegates toured the facilities at WCMC-Q and HMC, and learned about the college’s research program through addresses by Dr. Khaled Machaca, associate dean for research, and Dr. Nayef Mazloum, coordinator of student research.

Also in attendance at the symposium was Dr. Barbara Hempstead, who was recently appointed senior associate dean for education at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

Dr. Hempstead said: “This is an absolutely critical event for the students here at WCMC-Q. It is very important that they should have a good understanding of what a residency program director considers a good candidate and there is no better way for that to happen than through direct engagement. It is also very important for WCMC-Q to be able to showcase the excellent education its students receive to the residency program directors.”

Dr. Marc Borenstein, department chair and program director for the Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Missouri School of Medicine, was visiting WCMC-Q and Qatar for the first time.

He said: “This has been a great opportunity for me to learn about the medical school, the quality of its curriculum and its faculty, the educational and research resources here, and of course the students, who are absolutely exceptional young people. I have also had the chance to experience medical education in a cultural environment that is new to me, which has been hugely stimulating and has given me a new perspective on the future of medicine.”