When Iqbal El-Assaad graduated in 2013, she not only earned a medical degree but also the distinction of being one of the world’s youngest doctors. At age 20, the Palestinian received a medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.
And El-Assaad isn’t alone. Countries and universities in the Arab region are ramping up their efforts to attract students like El-Assaad, starting new programs and revamping existing ones.
A career in medicine in the Gulf countries is promising for local medical doctors. The region suffers from a shortage of doctors, particularly health care workers from the Gulf, and will see a predicted 240 percent increase in demand for health care services by 2025, according to a recent report by McKinsey & Co.
[Explore the top Arab region universities that produce research in medicine.]
Qatar has sought to address this shortage by strengthening existing medical education through collaboration with European and U.S. medical schools, such as with Weill Cornell Medical College. The country has also established a medical school at its largest university, Qatar University, with its first enrollments in fall 2015. Its six-year M.D. program seeks to address the country’s doctor shortage while ensuring those doctors receive an education that meets international standards of quality.
“This places it in a unique position not only to empower graduates with the skills, knowledge, tools and characteristics that best prepare them for success as practicing physicians in Qatar, but due to regional similarities, it also shapes them to become excellent doctors with knowledge and skills that best address regional specificities,” says Zina Hazem Al-Azmeh, assistant vice president for communication and outreach for the medical school.
Maintaining international standards in the Arab region is a focus for Weill Cornell Medical College as well. “WCMC-Q is an excellent choice for both Arab and non-Arab students in the region as it offers a world-class medical education close to home and at the heart of the Middle East,” says Dr. Javaid Sheikh, dean of the school, which offers a six-year medical degree program with two years of classroom-based premedical training and four years of medical training.
Sheikh says in 2014 the school had a 100 percent success rate in matching students to residency programs, the majority at U.S. facilities, such as New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland.
Some students, however, choose to perform their residency in Qatar, in places like the internationally accredited Hamad Medical Corporation. Sheikh describes the organization as having “excellent facilities,” with residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education International .
Dubai-based Palestinian Lara AbuMuaileq earned her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from Dubai Medical College in 2009, which offers five years of study followed by an internship year. She originally chose between three institutions in the United Arab Emirates: Dubai Medical College, University of Sharjah and Gulf Medical University.
[Learn how higher education in the Arab region is evolving.]
“Choosing a college is hard,” says AbuMuaileq. “You need to look at the cost, the training level, see where their graduates are now and your own social and family situation.”
She decided on Dubai Medical College because it was a more established school and their training was in Dubai Health Authority hospitals. AbuMuaileq is currently in her final year in the emergency medicine training program at Rashid Hospital Trauma Center. She was recently board certified by the Arab Board in Emergency Medicine.
“Our program was the first in UAE in a big trauma center with excellent doctors and consultants — and being in Dubai, a metropolitan city, you are exposed to many different patients from different ethnic groups, a privilege you rarely see in other places,” says AbuMuaileq, who seeks to work at Rashid Hospital but eventually plans to pursue a career in medical toxicology.
While there are many medical schools to choose from, studying medicine is no easy feat, says Dr. Mohamed H. Sayegh, vice president of medical affairs and dean of the faculty of medicine at American University of Beirut, which has a four-year program of study. Studying medicine requires effort, time, dedication and perseverance, he says. Sayegh often advises the medical school’s students to embrace learning, as the field of medicine is always changing and evolving.
[Understand key facts about American-style universities in the Arab region.]
“Learn from your peers, teachers and find a mentor that can help guide you. Also, it is important to be open to change,” says Sayegh, who graduated from AUB’s Faculty of Medicine in 1984. “And, recognize that as an individual you can make a difference. Never doubt that. Be humble, compassionate and a driver of change.”
El-Assaad, now 22, says her school prepared her well for residency in the U.S. She is in her second year of residency in pediatrics at the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital in Ohio. She will do a chief year there after her third year and plans to apply for a pediatric cardiology fellowship before returning to the Middle East to serve Palestinian refugees.
“My dream would be to go and work in Palestine but due to political issues, I am not sure if that will ever be a possibility,” says El-Assaad. “To be more realistic, I see myself working in the Middle East, between Lebanon and Qatar.”
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Arab Region Universities Expand Medical Education Options originally appeared on usnews.com
