Dr Abdullatif al-Khal, deputy chief medical officer and director of
medical education, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), has been presented
with the first-ever Physician International Award. He was honoured
during a ceremony held in Florida, US, as part of the Accreditation
Council for Graduate Medical Education’s (ACGME) annual conference.
The award was created to honour an individual who has made outstanding
contributions toward ensuring and improving the quality of graduate
medical education for physicians in training.
Dr al-Khal received the award from Dr Thomas Nasca, president of ACGME, a
US-based organisation that accredits hospitals and medical centres with
the aim of creating a safer and higher quality training environment for
doctors in their residency and fellowship years. Five fellowship
programmes and 14 residency programmes at HMC have been accredited by
the ACGME-I, the international arm of the ACGME. HMC is the first
healthcare organisation outside the US and Singapore to achieve ACGME-I
accreditation; additional residency and fellowship programmes will go
forward for accreditation in 2018 and 2019.
“Dr al-Khal has contributed to international accreditation efforts on
various levels,” said Dr Diane M Hartmann, chair of the ACGME Awards
Committee and a member of the ACGME Board of Directors.
“He was instrumental in bringing ACGME International accreditation to
Qatar, helping to achieve HMC’s vision of providing high-quality
training programmes for its physician trainees. He has also contributed
actively to the accreditation community, serving as an inaugural
international member of the ACGME-I Review Committee International,”
added Dr Hartmann.
“HMC’s acting chief medical officer Dr Abdulla al-Ansari stated that the
whole Corporation is proud of this achievement and the wider clinical
team in HMC should also feel honoured by this success. “I would
encourage all HMC staff to engage in their work with the same passion
and drive as Dr al-Khal. For many years, Dr al- Khal has been a great
advocate for medical education and training that cultivates approaches
to healthcare in which quality of care and patient experience are
central,” Dr al-Ansari added.
Each year HMC accepts approximately 150 new residents to its 21
residency programmes. At any given time, upwards of 700 residents are
working across HMC’s network of hospitals. Over 300 fellows are
currently part of more than 60 HMC-sponsored fellowship programme.
Dr Abdullatif al-Khal is the inaugural recipient of the Physician International Award.