Staff Reporter
THE 16 students of the inaugural class of Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) took a significant and symbolic step on the road to becoming doctors, as they donned white coats at a special ceremony.
The first-ever white coat ceremony in Qatar was held at WCMC-Q in the presence of the Minister of Finance HE Yousef Hussein Kamal, representing HH Sheikha Mozah Nasser al-Misnad, wife of HH the Emir and chairperson of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF).
The students of ‘Class of 2008’, were assisted in putting on their coats by WCMC-Q medical faculty, including senior physicians at the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).
The white coats, with the distinctive WCMC-Q patch on one sleeve, are shorter than the full-length coats worn by fully qualified doctors and show that the students are doctors-in-training.
“The students, who entered the four-year medical programme last month, have ‘crossed a threshold’ in their education and career,” observed WCMC New York dean Dr Antonio M Gotto, Jr.
He went on to say that it was the aim of WCMC-Q to train them to the highest standards in bio-medical sciences and humanistic principles, giving equal empahsis to both.
Dr Gotto urged the students to listen carefully to the Hippocratic Oath as it was read out to them by WCMC-Q dean Dr Daniel R Alonso.
In his keynote address, Association of American Medical Colleges president Dr Jordan J Cohen stated that the inaugural class was privileged to be entering the medical profession at a truly unique point in history, ‘at the confluence of three paths of scientific and technological advancement’.
“The major developments in information technology were giving the medical profession unprecedented access to information,” he explained.
The revolution in genetics has opened up the prospect that risk of a disease may be identified before it manifests and leads the way to the practice of truly preventive medicine.
“The development of stem cell research promises to usher in an unimaginable era of regenerative medicine offering real help in cases of hopeless degeneration,” he added.
Dr Cohen also presented the medical students with pins from the Arnold P Gold Foundation, established in the US in 1988 to promote humanism in medicine.
Fourteen of the students in the inaugural medical batch successfully completed their pre-medical education at WCMC-Q itself while two are graduates from universities in the US.
Leaders from Cornell University in Ithaca, WCMC New York, the QF and the HMC were present at the ceremony. |
