It is a new, highly integrated medical curriculum that stands among the most rigourous and progressive available anywhere in the world, said Dr. Javaid Sheikh, dean of WCM-Q.
“We feel very strongly that it is crucial for our institution to be at the forefront of positive innovation in medical education, which is why we are very proud and happy to announce the launch of our new medical curriculum,” said Dr. Sheikh.
“The new curriculum has been carefully designed to produce tech-savvy, inquisitive and adaptive physicians who are able to assimilate new knowledge, engage in research and acquire new skills throughout their careers so that their patients benefit from advances in medicine as they occur. In short, it is a curriculum to produce world-class, 21st century physicians right here in Qatar.”
The new curriculum is now being taught to WCM-Q’s most recent cohort of students, the Class of 2020, who began the WCM-Q four-year Medical Programme in September 2016.The new programme of study is the result of four years of painstaking review and consultation, which began at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and was later applied in Qatar.
The new curriculum gives students an earlier introduction and increased focus on the development of patient care and physicianship skills, and makes increased use of hi-tech learning tools and simulation-based immersive medicine training in the college’s Clinical Skills Centre, which is undergoing an extensive programme of expansion and modernisation.
Other key features of the new curriculum include an enhanced level of integration between the three identified curriculum themes of : Science, Patient Care and Physicianship, and the provision of a longitudinal research experience that starts from day one of the curriculum and concludes in the final year with an in-depth project conducted under the supervision of a faculty member.
The new curriculum broadly follows that of WCM-Q’s home campus in New York, with certain adaptations to fit local circumstances and maximise the benefits of WCM-Q’s particular strengths, such as its highly favourable student to faculty ratio, well-developed biomedical research programme and support from Qatar Foundation.
The new four-year medical curriculum is designed to follow on from the two-year WCM-Q pre-medical curriculum; together, the two curricula form the cohesive and comprehensive WCM-Q six-year medical programme.
One of the most distinctive features of the new curriculum is the introduction to patient care and physicianship skills in the very first week of study. This is in contrast to traditional medical programmes which typically spend a long time focused on theory before allowing students contact time with patients.
Under the new curriculum, WCM-Q students will continue to gain crucial hands-on experience in clinical care at WCM-Q clinical affiliates Hamad Medical Corporation, Aspetar, the Primary Health Care Corporation and the Feto Maternal Centre. In addition, a new clinical rotation has been established with Sidra Medical and Research Center, which is now hosting WCM-Q students on the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Clerkship.
