Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar (WCM-Q) has honoured the work of hundreds of local physicians who share their knowledge and experience to help train the college’s doctors of the future.
As part of their medical training, in the final two years of their medical degrees, WCM-Q students spend a total of 55 weeks on clinical clerkships in affiliated institutions like Hamad Medical Corp (HMC), where they apply their knowledge under the supervision of experienced physicians affiliated with WCM-Q.
Such 467 physicians were honoured with a WCM-Q doctor’s white coat, and WCM-Q business cards at a ceremony at HMC’s Hajar Auditorium last Saturday.
Dr Javaid Sheikh, dean of WCM-Q, said the work of WCM-Q’s affiliate doctors is invaluable, both to the education of the next generation of doctors and to the future of healthcare in Qatar.
The affiliates practise in a range of institutions including HMC, Sidra Medical and Research Center, Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, the Primary Health Care Corp (PHCC), and Foeto-Maternal Centre.
Dr Sheikh said: “As a medical college, we can teach our student doctors how to diagnose illnesses, how to provide comfort and support, and how to save lives. However, it is the doctors at our affiliate institutions who show them how to put that knowledge into practice.
“Among them, our faculty colleagues at WCM-Q’s affiliates have a wealth of experience that can only be learned through decades of work in hospitals, clinics, surgeries and healthcare centres.
“It is this knowledge and wisdom in fields as varied as obstetrics, internal medicine, surgery, neurology, psychiatry and paediatrics that they are passing on to our students.”
Dr Abdulla al-Ansari, deputy chief medical officer – surgical services, at HMC, said the relationship between HMC and WCM-Q is like a marriage that gets stronger every day.
“It is healthy to have a good relationship between a hospital and a medical school. Our relationship has been going for 10 years and it’s getting stronger and stronger,” Dr al-Ansari said.
“WCM-Q students join us for surgery and on our ward rounds and all the students I have seen are enthusiastic, up-to- date, and very energetic.
“That means we have to keep up with them; when you have energetic students it energises their doctors and teachers.
“They really have a very positive effect on the environment and it means they also have good relationships with the nurses and patients.”