Qataris represent over 20% of medical residents joining HMC this year
Doha, 14 June 2022: Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Qatar’s largest, state-run, healthcare provider, is set to welcome 189 newly graduated medical doctors to join the acclaimed medical residency programs provided through the Department of Medical Education. Of the 189 new medical graduates, 58 are graduates from the College of Medicine at Qatar University.
The medical graduates who have been accepted into residency programs have come primarily from the local medical schools, including Qatar University’s College of Medicine and Weil Cornell Medicine-Qatar. Over twenty percent (20%) of successful applicants for a coveted residency placement at HMC are Qatari nationals, demonstrating the growing number of high-caliber local medical students in the country.
Dr. Abdullatif Al-Khal, Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Director of Medical Education at HMC said that these young doctors will contribute to the delivery of Qatar’s future healthcare system as part of our National Health Strategy: “We have worked closely with our academic health partners to ensure a high quality educational program that focuses on ACGME competencies and that includes strong clinical training elements that include quality improvement understanding, good communications skills and medical professionalism and knowledge, which are important to create well rounded and well qualified young doctors.
“We have well established affiliation and strong partnership with both medical colleges in Qatar and they are integral to Qatar’s strategy to foster a locally-developed and trained high quality medical workforce, which understands the local culture and healthcare needs of the population and is skilled and proficient in dealing with Qatar’s current and future healthcare needs,” added Dr. Al-Khal.
Qatar University’s (QU) Medical College, which has previously graduated its first batch of new doctors in 2021, has been instrumental as a local academic partner in the development of the next generation of highly-prepared physicians. The 58 medical graduates from QU, who represent the second batch of graduates since the launch of the medical college, will soon be starting in one of 21 residency programs across HMC, most of which are ACGME-I accredited. This undertaking underpins the country’s strategic vision of strengthening Qatar’s own home-grown local medical professional talents and reducing dependency on international medical graduates.
“The new students from QU will be joining their peers from 2021 who are now well established in their respective training programs. It has been a joy to see how they have thrived over the past year, which has been in part due to our rigor and commitment to the high standards of our internationally accredited programs. Over the years we have seen many more residency applications as many medical graduates find it attractive to do their specialization and advanced training at our renowned healthcare institution because of the strong reputation of our education programs,” said Dr. Al-Khal
“While we continue to welcome international medical graduates to our professional education programs, we look favorably at candidates who have a vested interest in developing a career in Qatar and contributing to advancement of care, education and research across our health sector,” said Dr. Al-Khal. “However, we also believe that a diverse population group will ensure a stronger team of professionals and one that is more reflective of the society they will care for. We are delighted that amongst the 58 Qatar University medical graduates joining our residency programs this year, many are enthusiastic and highly competitive female graduates.”
HMC is the first healthcare system in the region to achieve prestigious institutional accreditation by ACGME International LLC (www.acgme-i.org). HMC’s Medical Education Department prides itself on having successfully achieved ACGME International program accreditation for many of its medical residency training programs and subspecialty fellowship programs.
HMC sponsors 21 residency programs in the different specialties and more than 60 fellowship programs in different subspecialties. In addition, HMC is accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI) as an Academic Medical Center. HMC is also a member of Qatar’s Academic Health System, with a tripartite mission to advance clinical care through teaching, education, and research, and is a primary affiliate of two medical schools in Qatar, namely the College of Medicine at Qatar University and Weill-Cornell College of Medicine-Qatar.