MARCH / APRIL 2007
BULLETIN
HMI to help develop American-style medical school in Lebanon
HMI has entered into a 10-year agreement with Lebanese American University (LAU) to develop a high-quality academic medical institution to train medical professionals to serve Lebanon and the greater Middle East. LAU, which has campuses in Beirut and Byblos, is comprised of schools of arts and sciences, business, engineering and architecture. Its medical school will be modeled after top institutions in the United States, with a curriculum built around four years of undergraduate studies followed by a four-year medical education program.
At the time of this writing, Kamal F. Badr, MD, the dean of the medical school, had arrived in Boston for a series of discussions on key topics such as curriculum development, student admissions, facilities planning, and research. Check back with HMI World in the coming months to learn more about what promises to be an exciting project calling upon multiple components of HMI’s expertise and experience.
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New members of HMI team add depth to programs focused on developing high-quality medical institutions
In recent months HMI has welcomed a pair of professionals whose expertise and experience, though originating in different corners of the health care industry, are focused on developing world-class health care and academic institutions.
S. Bruce Dowton, MBBS, MD, FACMG, FRACP, has joined HMI as a Senior Vice President whose roles will be centered around thedevelopment of academic health organizations with HMI’s partners and working with colleagues at HMI in charting the HMI responses to the increasing demand for expert services around the world. Dr. Dowton, who has been a frequent contributor to HMI programs in the past, is an Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics at the University of South Wales in Australia. He served as Dean of Medicine at that institution from 1998 to 2005. He is also a past Chair of the Committee of Deans of Australian Medical Schools, the representative body for medical schools and faculties in Australia and the surrounding region.
Dr. Dowton explained that the success of academic medical institutions depends on more than simply recruiting top faculty to conduct research, deliver excellent clinical care, and implement innovative education programs for medicine and
the health sciences. “Leaders in higher education have several callings: to help their organizations define a purposeful identity, to build linkages within and beyond their institution, and to help interpret the complexity of the very dynamic worlds of health care and higher education,” he said.
Lorain R. Matthews, AIA, LEED AP, is an experienced and versatile architect who has joined HMI as a Senior Consultant on facilities planning and design projects. Her career has focused on guiding multidisciplinary teams in the design of state-of-the-art facilities for diagnostic and inpatient care, ambulatory care, research, and medical education. She has worked with some of the most prestigious academic medical centers in the United States, and her work has garnered national recognition.
The collaborative process of designing new facilities, said Ms. Matthews, is both the key to success and the most invigorating aspect of the work for those involved. She said, "The design of the built environment can transform our partner's aspirations into spaces to heal, teach, and discover. The convergence of best practices in health care, medical education, and research with these aspirations can create a foundation for long-term sustainability."
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Fourth edition of popular executive education course to be held in May
HMI and the University of Lausanne will gather health care leaders in May for the fourth edition of “Mastering the New Challenges of Health Care.” This five-day executive education course is designed to equip participants with the knowledge and strategic acumen to address the major challenges impacting health care delivery in Europe and beyond.
The program will again be led by Miles Shore, MD, HMI senior consultant and director, and Alberto Holly, PhD, professor of economics and director of the Institute of Health Economics and Management at the University of Lausanne. They will head a multidisciplinary faculty drawn from Harvard University, the University of Lausanne, the London School of Economics, and other top institutions.
“While national health care systems differ greatly, it is possible to draw important lessons and strategies from a comparison of how the key players in different systems relate to one another. Understanding the dynamics affecting patients, providers, payers, and administrators is critical for addressing the issues of cost, access, and quality,” said Shore.
Although the program focuses on health care systems in Europe, it addresses questions that are fundamental to the global health care community:
How can we evaluate health technology? What should be done about its rapid development?
The program aims to draw leaders from a wide range of backgrounds. Past participants have included major players from organizations in both the public and private sector, including hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, health ministries and authorities, and regulatory agencies. Professionals from outside Europe are encouraged to apply.
For further information and to learn how to register for the program, please click on the image to download a brochure. The course application form is available here.
Nursing conference highlights upcoming programs in Dubai
On March 24th, HMSDC will hold Specialty Practi-Med: Gastroenterology for Specialists and Primary Care Practitioners. This one-day course will review the latest on the diagnosis and management of gastroenterological disorders such as reflux disease and hepatitis, and present innovations in therapeutic endoscopy. The multidisciplinary faculty includes experts from Harvard Medical School, the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, and the American Hospital Dubai. The program will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Dubai.
On April 19, HMSDC will hold a program on current issues in respiratory health, a major area of concern for physicians throughout the Middle East. This one-day course will cover chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, ventilator-associated pneumonia, screening for lung cancer, and evaluation and management of dyspnea.
In April Dubai Healthcare City will present a two-day on conference that will explore the role of nurses in promoting patient safety and health care quality. Elizabeth Brown, RN, MSN, MBA, HMI director of clinical services, and Arlene Asgard, RN, MSN, program director for HMI Gulf, will join nursing specialists from the U.S. and the Gulf Region for a series of interactive discussions on nursing leadership, education, and research and their relationship to improving quality of care. This program, held April 20-21, is presented by Dubai Healthcare City.
For more information on upcoming programs being offered by HMSDC, visit the website at www.hmsdc.hms.harvard.edu.
Hospital management is focus of program delivered by HMI and the University of Nice
More than 100 health care professionals from hospitals in France gathered for a three-day program covering best practices across all areas of hospital management. Sharon Kleefield, PhD, HMI director of health care quality, headed a multidisciplinary faculty that included health care professionals from the United States as well as the French health care community.
The conference, entitled “Meeting the Challenges for Hospital Success: Competencies, Governance, and Performance,” was a collaborative effort between HMI and the University of Nice. The French institution partnered with HMI in 2005 with the goal of building educational models to support improvements in French medical education and clinical practice, particularly in the area of emergency medicine.
The conference’s many interactive sessions revolved around one word in particular that was repeated throughout: performance. The conference examined the barriers and strategies for building new models of organizational, hospital, and individual performance, tying together specific issues in the French system with the notion of building a culture of change that would enable the appropriate reforms to take place.
“This conference covered a broad range of topics associated with hospital management, from specific tools and strategies to the principles of continuous quality improvement that are at the core of successful hospitals,” said Kleefield. “The delegates and faculty alike were eager to hear about approaches to hospital management that have been implemented in France and the U.S with great results.”
In addition to Kleefield, the HMI faculty included Stuart Rosenberg, MD, president and CEO of the Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians group at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC); Richard Wolfe, MD, chief of emergency medicine at BIDMC; Jonathan Edlow, MD, FACEP, vice chair of emergency medicine at BIDMC; and John Kimberly, PhD, professor of health care management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Spring schedule features two CME programs for Swiss specialists
HMI will deliver a pair of one-day continuing medical education (CME) programs in Switzerland presenting recent advances in the treatment and management of neurological conditions and breast cancer. The programs are offered through unrestricted educational grant from Novartis Pharma Schweiz.
The first program, scheduled for May 24th in Bern, will focus on the diagnosis, management, and therapeutic approaches to dementia, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injury. Galen Henderson, MD, assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Brigham & Women’s Hospital, will co-moderate the program with Andreas Monsch, MD of the University Hospital Basel. The program will include lectures, interactive case presentations, and panel discussions.
On June 20th, Paul Goss, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at HMS and Massachusetts General Hospital, will join fellow oncologists in Zurich to discuss new adjuvant treatment strategies for breast cancer. The program will cover adjuvant chemotherapy and other novel biological therapies for breast cancer.
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Michael Kavanagh recognized with HMI's Employee Recognition Award
HMI’s Michael Kavanagh is the latest recipient of HMI’s Employee Recognition Award, given to recognize outstanding service to the organization and its partners. Michael, who is HMI Regional Manager for East Asia, has played a major role in HMI’s partnerships with Acibadem Healthcare Group and Phyathai Hospital Group, and has teamed with HMI team members in Boston and Beijing to help manage programs in China and Korea.
Past awardees include Pallavi Jagasia, Ryan Wildes, Rachel D’Ambrosio, Holly Vogel, Margaret Regan, Diane Standring, Karin Vander Schaff, Irene Daly, Kristen Mitchell, and Nancy Soule.
Now available online: Dubai Harvard Foundation conference report
A report on the proceedings of “Strategy for Science: Young Investigators Conference” is now available on the website of the Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research. The event, held in January, gathered more than 70 young and aspiring research scientists, faculty, and regional academic leaders to Dubai for a series of discussions on the future course of science in the Gulf Region. This report summarizes the day’s events as well as the outcomes of collaborative discussions that involved both conference faculty and delegates.
To access the report, click here and visit the Foundation’s website. A feature article on the event appeared in the January-February 2007 issue of HMI World.
Copyright 2007 Harvard Medical International