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.