Qatar was the first country in the region to achieve the ACGME-I institutional accreditation in 2012, which laid the foundation for individual, advanced specialty accreditation for HMC’s graduate medical education programmes.

HMC managing director Dr Hanan al-Kuwari, who hosted the celebration event, acknowledged the “efforts and dedication” of the teams involved in gaining the achievement.

“Receiving this accreditation is an accolade as much for HMC as it is for each and every team member who has worked tirelessly to ensure that our training programmes are of a high standard that will benefit our resident physicians and ultimately our patients,” she said.

Al-Kuwari reiterated that by advancing the quality of teaching, learning, research and professional practice in the provision of medical education, the corporation is upholding the principles of accreditation, which are to benefit the public and promote the development of its medical residents.

“It is a cornerstone of our academic health mandate and underpins our efforts to deliver the safest, most effective and compassionate care to our patients,” al-Kuwari added.

In early 2013, seven core residency programmes at HMC applied for individual ACGME-I accreditation. These included Internal Medicine, Paediatric, Emergency Medicine, Psychiatry, Family Medicine, Diagnostic Radiology and Urology. Departmental committees led by senior specialists  managed the development of the training programmes, which successfully achieved full ACGME-I accreditation for two years in December 2013.

Efforts are underway to achieve accreditation for the remaining 11 residency programmes over the next two years.

The ACGME-I is the international arm of the ACGME, a private, non-profit organisation responsible for accreditation of over 9,200 residency and fellowship education programmes in the US in 133 specialty and subspecialty areas of medicine.

ACGME-I accreditation aims to ensure the training and graduation of competent physicians who have met international standards and trained as professional, humanistic physicians in a positive learning environment.

“Achieving ACGME-I institutional and individual programme accreditation means that HMC provides high quality postgraduate clinical education on a par with accredited programmes and institutions in the US,” HMC’s Medical Education Department Medical, Academic and Research Affairs deputy chief Dr Abdullatif al-Khal said.

He noted that the accreditation made HMC “highly attractive” to the best international medical graduates and top faculty which further strengthens its residency programmes.

“We also expect that the graduates of our accredited programmes should be eligible to take the American Board of Medical Specialties-International certifying examinations. This will further enhance the value of training programmes offered by HMC in collaboration with its medical education partner, Weil Cornell Medical College-Qatar.”