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Curriculum and faculty development as Alfaisal University prepares for medical school opening
LAU School of Medicine hosts national workshop on medical education
Curriculum and faculty development as Alfaisal University prepares for medical school opening
The Alfaisal University College of Medicine in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is on schedule to welcome its first students in October. A team from Partners Harvard Medical International (PHMI) led by Dr. Tom Aretz, Vice President of Global Programs, has assisted with several components of institutional planning, including the development of a detailed six-year medical curriculum that utilizes case-based and practice-based learning.
Alfaisal University is a new institution created by the King Faisal Foundation, an organization endowed by the sons of the former Saudi king to promote education in the kingdom. It is one of the first private universities to receive permission to open in Saudi Arabia and one of the few non-profit private institutions in the country. In addition to the medical college, the university will include schools of business, engineering, and science.
In recent months PHMI has conducted two faculty development programs with the goal of preparing faculty in the basic science departments and at the clinical sites. These programs have focused on teaching strategies that stimulate active learning, including tutorials, cases, and other exercises rooted in case and practice-based learning. The leadership at Alfaisal view these staples of medical education as critical to the college’s mission to graduate physicians who are highly adept at critical thinking, problem solving, and lifelong learning.
To this end Alfaisal University is allied with the University Preparatory Program, a highly selective academic program that prepares students to pursue higher education at competitive universities in Saudi Arabia and around the world. The UPP curriculum, taught in English by an international faculty, integrates training in the sciences, mathematics, and information technology. Students follow one of three tracks (business, engineering, or medicine) that prepare them to succeed at the college level. The UPP, currently operated in the Diplomatic Quarter, will eventually be housed on the Alfaisal University campus.
Dr. Khaled Al-Kattan, Dean of the Alfaisal University College of Medicine, said the school aspires to be a student-centered university utilizing interactive educational models. “The College of Medicine will follow a hybrid curriculum with emphasis on problem-based learning and self-directed curriculum, in which patients and problems are studied from multiple standpoints. That will be integrated with other modern methods of teaching such as critical thinking, patient simulation, e-learning, adult learning theories, large and small group study, and tutorials,” he said. The dean added that Alfaisal’s laboratories and resource centers are well equipped technologically and incorporate e-learning tools, which represent a major component of the curriculum.
Dr. Aretz said the physical plan of the university lends itself to intermixing between the colleges of business, engineering, science, and medicine. The crescent-shaped campus features open corridors and centrally located libraries and student centers. The school’s planners hope to take advantage of the proximity of the colleges to encourage cross-utilization of the faculty and inter-disciplinary learning.
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LAU School of Medicine hosts national workshop on medical education
The opening date of the new medical school at the Lebanese American University (LAU) is still more than a year away. Yet LAU, now in the second year of its collaboration with Partners Harvard Medical International (PHMI), is already establishing itself in the Lebanese academic medical community. In April, the school gathered leaders from the country’s other medical schools for a lively dialogue on the future of education in the Middle East. 
The panel discussion was part of a three-day event that included a workshop for new LAU medical faculty led by Dr. N. Lynn Eckhert, PHMI Director of Academic Programs, PHMI Senior Consultant Dr. Constance Bowe, and Dr. Zeinat Hijazi, Assistant Dean for Medical Education at LAU. A highlight of the workshop was a small-group, problem-based learning exercise conducted with eight pre-medical students at LAU.
The event culminated in a day-long symposium on medical education, featuring a keynote address by Dr. Eckhert (pictured at right with LAU Dean Kamal Badr) and an introduction to the LAU curriculum by Dr. Hijazi. The panel discussion gave voice to the rich diversity of medical education traditions in Lebanon. In addition to Dr. Kamal Badr, the founding Dean of LAU’s medical school, the speakers included representatives from the country’s six other medical schools, including five school deans.
The LAU School of Medicine, which will be based in Beirut and Byblos, will feature an American-style curriculum. Its first class of medical students will commence in September 2009.
HMSDC gives recognition and chance to study at Harvard to seven Middle Eastern health care professionals
In April the Harvard Medical School Dubai Center (HMSDC) Institute for Postgraduate Education & Research honored the recipients of the second annual Tamayoz Awards. The awards were established, in conjunction with Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), to recognize the achievements of individual practitioners and trainees while reinforcing the importance of education and research in the continued advance of the Gulf Region health care community.
The recipients of the HMSDC Tamayoz Awards were nominated by their peers and selected by a panel comprised of faculty from Harvard Medical School. The promise of youth was a prerequisite for selection: all nominees were required to be less than 40 years of age.
Each awardee will complete a one-month observership in a Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospital or laboratory.
Dr. Muhadditha Al Hashimi, Chief Executive Officer of DHCC, commented that the awards will “help to motivate young health care professionals to further enhance their skills and knowledge,” adding, “The recognition and accompanying fellowships add tremendous value to an individual’s career prospects, encouraging the professional to target scientific research and discovery as key focus areas.”
The awards included categories for nursing and other health care professionals, trainees, as well as a newly instituted honor for young physician researchers. Winners included Mohammed Fteiha, a speech pathologist at the Dubai Autism Center, and Mahnaz Zeinali, a senior laboratory technician in the genetics department of Dubai’s Al Wasl Hospital. Trainee awards were given to Taleb Mohamad Al Mansoor, a radiology resident at Tawam Hospital in Al Ain, and Ahmad Al Hammadi, a medical student at the UAE University who has conducted diabetes research. The Young Physician Awards were presented to Rahul Nathwani, a gastroenterologist at the Abu Hammour Medical Center in DHCC, and Saud Al-Shanafey, a surgery professor at King Saud University for Health Sciences in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Fowzan AlKuraya, a pediatrician and medical geneticist at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, won the Young Physician Research Award.
