As part of Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) commitment to nurturing and supporting the next generation of clinical leaders, three senior Qatari clinicians recently completed the prestigious New and Emerging Academic Leaders (NEAL) programme at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Faculty Development.
The first group of three senior Qatari clinicians, supported by HMC’s Academic Health System Office, graduated from the highly competitive year-long programme in May. They are: Dr Noora Mohamed al-Hammadi, chairman, Radiation Oncology, HMC & assistant professor, Clinical Radiation Oncology – Weill Cornell Medical College – Qatar; Dr Jassim al-Suwaidi, executive director of Cardiovascular Research and senior consultant interventional cardiologist, HMC and Dr Abdulla al-Ansari, deputy chief medical officer for surgical services, HMC.
The intensive course involved three five-day trips to the campus in Canada as well as assignments and webinars while they were back in Doha.
The NEAL programme focuses on building skills and expertise in important domains that underpin academic leadership: intrapersonal, interpersonal, organisational and system. Equipping clinical leaders with these skills allows them to think more broadly, and helps them to successfully lead their clinical areas and their research and academic programmes, as well as help their colleagues be successful.
Professor Bill McKenna, Institutional Officer for Research at HMC said an important pillar of the Corporation’s unique Academic Health System is to develop the next generation of clinical, academic and research leaders.
“This means providing development opportunities for existing leaders and senior colleagues, helping them to understand their leadership roles within an academic health context, and enabling them to become ambassadors for change in the system as well as to support the development of new or novice colleagues, who will assume these leadership roles in the future,” he said.
“This programme attracts some of the best and brightest clinicians from around the globe and is an ideal opportunity to share best practices and experiences that will ultimately bring real results for our patients and the community.”
Dr Noora al-Hammadi, one of the participants said the programme was of great benefit to her and her colleagues. “It was a unique opportunity to work with experienced academic leaders from many different institutions, and at different stages of their careers,” Dr al-Hammadi said.
“This programme is unique as it focuses specifically on building leadership abilities within an academic health context. We are all in a position to translate that learning and experience into real benefits for our patients,” she added.
HMC will be sending three more clinical leaders for the next intake of the programme in September 2016.
HMC
