HMC reaccredited by ACGME-I as sponsoring institution

Tribune News Network Doha Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Qatar’s largest academic health organisation, has been reaccredited by the international body of...

Tribune News NetworkDohaHamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Qatar’s largest academic health organisation, has been reaccredited by the international body of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME-I) as a sponsoring institution. The international accolade signifies that HMC is an institution that hosts residency and fellowship programmes based on very high standards. Along with the institutional reaccreditation, HMC also had two new training programmes accredited by ACGME-I. The Neurosurgery Residency programme and Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) Fellowship programme have demonstrated that they meet established international standards for Institutional, Foundational and Advanced specialty education. The newly accredited programmes now join the 14 existing residency and nine fellowship training programmes that have already successfully achieved ACGME International LLC programme accreditation.Dr Abdullatif Al Khal, deputy chief medical officer and director of Medical Education at HMC, said that this achievement underpins the organization’s commitment to delivering exceptionally high standards of professional education.He said, “Qatar was the first country in the region to achieve the ACGME-I institutional accreditation in 2012, which laid the foundation for individual program accreditation. By helping to improve the quality of our teaching practices, encouraging scientific research and enhancing our professional medical education practice, we are upholding the principle of accreditation designed to benefit patients and the public as well as protect the interests and the wellbeing of medical residents.”Sponsoring institution refers to the institution or entity is recognised by the GME accrediting organisation and designated as having ultimate responsibility for the assurance of academic quality and compliance with the terms of accreditation. As of January 2021, 19 Sponsoring Institutions and 163 programmes (108 residencies and 55 fellowships) have ACGME-I accreditation. Qatar was among the first Arab countries and the second country in the world after Singapore to achieve this international accreditation. HMC sponsors more than 20 Residency Programmes and many fellowship programmes.“This achievement helps to make HMC highly attractive for the best international medical graduates and top faculty, which further strengthens our residency programmes. It also creates the ideal learning environment for the specialisation of medical graduates from Weil Cornell Medicine-Qatar and Qatar University Medical College to become the future medical specialists who will serve the country,” added Dr KhalThe ACGME-I employs a comprehensive, peer-review process to evaluate, improve and publicly recognise programmes and sponsoring institutions in graduate medical education. This process helps the organisation to meet or even exceed their standards of educational quality.The ACGME is a private, non-profit organisation that accredits over 9,200 residency programmes in 133 specialties and subspecialties that educate over 110,000 residents. Its mission is to improve health care by assessing and advancing the quality of resident physicians’ education through exemplary accreditation.ACGME-I staff members assess all aspects of the educational system, including all competencies essential for providing quality care, supportive structure for the educational team and the role of the institution in ensuring successful education in the clinicalsetting.