Staff Reporter
AN AFFILIATION agreement was signed yesterday between Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) and New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) to advance and promote medical education, clinical care and research in Qatar.
The agreement, signed at a special ceremony at WCMC-Q in Qatar Foundation’s Education City, will serve to formalise the three-way partnership which was initiated the previous spring, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in May this year.
HMC chairperson Dr Latifa al-Houty, managing director HE Turki al-Khater, WCMC’s provost of medical affairs and Stephen and Suzanne Weiss dean Dr Antonio M Gotto, Jr, WCMC-Q dean Dr Daniel R Alonso and NYPH senior vice-president and chief medical officer Dr Steven J Corwin were the signatories.
As part of the ‘open-ended’ agreement, HMC will make its hospitals and primary health care centres (PHCs) available as clinical education training sites for WCMC-Q students.
The first batch of 16 first-year medical students, comprising four Qataris, three Bosnians, three Americans, two Indians and one each from Iran, Jordan, Syria and Nigeria, will begin clinical trials at HMC and two PHCs from today.
“They will spend half of each week at the clinics for the rest of the academic session,” explained Dr Alonso.
There will also be opportunities for training and educational exchange between personnel of three institutions, including physicians, fellows and residents.
Each party to the agreement will remain an independent entity and the affiliation does not represent any exchange of funds. When the proposed Speciality Teaching Hospital (STH) is established in Education City, its activities are to be affiliated to HMC.
In reply to a question, Dr Alonso stated that “WCMC-Q will have both HMC and STH as principal affiliates,” and Dr Latifa added that both HMC and STH are to complement each other.
Founded in 1898, the Joan and Sanford I Weill Medical College of Cornell University is among the top-ranked clinical and medical research centres in the US.
The medical college has been affiliated since 1927 with what is now the NYPH, with the latter serving as the university hospital for the former.
The WCMC-Q has been set up by Cornell University, the establishment of which goes back to 1860s, and the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), as the only branch campus of the university outside the US.
As a result of the agreement with QF, the WCMC became the first American medical school ever to offer its Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree overseas.
The WCMC-Q offers a two year pre-medical programme followed by a four-year medical programme that leads to the MD degree from Cornell University, with each course requiring separate entrance examinations.
Admission requirements are the same as those at Cornell in the US. Teaching is by Cornell faculty and academic standards are very high.
The first pre-medical classes opened in September 2002 and the first medical programme in September this year. The 16-strong Class of 2008, that is how the first medical batch is called, has 14 students who successfully completed the pre-medical programme at WCMC-Q and two are graduates of universities in the US.
The 2,395 bed NYPH, the largest non-profit, non-sectarian hospital in the US, is one of the most comprehensive university hospitals in the world with leading specialists in every field.
The hospital has ranked among the top 10 hospitals in the US, for the fourth consecutive year, according to the US News & World Report ‘America’s Best Hospitals’ survey, with top 10 positions in seven medical specialities.
Also present at the affiliation agreement signing ceremony were Cornell University president Jeffrey Sean Lehman, HMC vice chairman Sheikh Hamad bin Jaber al-Thani, Department of Family and Community Medicine chairman and Primary Health Care Department director, Dr Saleh Ali al-Marri, HMC administrative director Ahmed al-Na’ama, medical director Dr Saad al-Kaabi, Department of Medicine head Dr Abdul Latif al-Khal and other officials from WCMC, HMC and NYPH. |
