The Academic Health System (AHS) recently held a five-week advanced clinical research training course at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) to further promote Qatar’s medical research enterprise.
A total of 24 senior healthcare professionals from multiple disciplines and medical specialty groups in Qatar participated in intensive two-hour training sessions on weekday evenings in February and March.
Course participants were selected after a rigorous selection process from a group of nearly 100 applicants from across the AHS. The course followed an innovative design: it combined interactive lectures on epidemiology, biostatistics, study design, scientific writing and clinical trials, with small group sessions, during which the participants - with the help of experienced investigators - learned how to develop their own clinical research proposals.
The course is part of the AHS Clinical and Translational Research Training Programme, which seeks to develop a sophisticated medical research infrastructure and culture in Qatar. Under this successful programme, the AHS has organised several introductory and advanced clinical research training courses over the past two years, training well over 500 people to date.
According to Prof Edward Hillhouse, HMC’s chief of scientific, faculty and academic affairs: “The AHS research training programme is fully aligned with AHS’s aim to link health, education and research and draw on the strengths of its partner institutions.
“I laud the programme’s ability to provide clinical investigators in Qatar with key skills to take clinical research forward for patient benefit.”
As the next step, participants from this and last year’s advanced training courses will be invited to apply for pilot funding to develop collaborative clinical research projects under mentorship guidance from experienced AHS clinical investigators. This will give participants the opportunity to directly apply their new insights to clinical research questions pertinent to Qatar.
Prof Ibrahim Janahi, executive director of research at HMC’s Medical Research Centre, said: “There are a significant number of extremely talented healthcare professionals here in Qatar and many of them have some excellent ideas for high-impact clinical research projects. It is important we provide them with the training required, such as this advanced course, to translate those ideas into reality.”