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UAE: Russian doctors undergo special training at Gulf Medical University

Dubai - Around 40 senior medical professors and physicians from Moscow undertook a training programme in Ajman.

Around 40 senior medical professors and physicians from Moscow have recently undertaken a training programme at the Gulf Medical University in Ajman called “Fundamentals of Assessment in Medical Education”.

The university has become the first in the Arabian Gulf region to offer this course, which aims to equip medical professors and healthcare practitioners with skills to assess and evaluate resident doctors, who have finished their training, and also practising specialist doctors for accreditation and re-accreditation.

The five-day programme was developed by Professor Dr Hossam Hamdy, the chancellor and professor of surgery and medical education at GMU, along with a series of training and workshops for the Russian delegates.

“The programme came about after the Russian department of health asked the GMU to train and run a course for senior physicians and head of the departments of top medical hospitals and universities in Moscow," Dr Hamdy told Khaleej Times.

"The health department was putting in place a new system of assessment of doctors. They sought our help to design a short course for the Russian doctors too since we are running a master’s programme on similar lines.”

Dr Hamdy designed the five-day course that covers various aspects of medical assessment of doctors. “ Under this programme, the department of health of Moscow sends groups of 20 healthcare professionals of different specialities to Ajman to undergo the five-day course at the end of which they get certificates of competence in assessment of clinical competencies,” he said.

Since most delegates are not fluent in English, all the slides and lectures of the five-day course are translated for them. Live translations are also provided for the Russians by three doctors/translators, who accompany the delegates and act as mediators between Dr Hamdy and the trainees.

“Once the course is completed, these healthcare professionals will go back and use the most advanced simulation, which I have helped them in developing and taught them how to use, in conducting the medical examination to assess clinical competencies of doctors."

"The use of advanced technologies and principles of assessing professional behaviour of doctors will ensure the society of a high quality of medical care,” Dr Hamdy added.

The course, Dr Hamdy said, was another feather in the UAE’s cap as it would help promote the country as a destination not only for medical education.

Dr Zalim Balkizov, MD, Ph.D and associate professor of medicine in the department of health, Moscow, said: “We’re setting up a new system of assessment and accreditation. We need trained experts who will be responsible for the assessment of physicians. This is the reason why we’re bringing groups of practitioners and health care professionals to the GMU to get trained on the latest techniques required for assessment.”

The training includes fundamentals of assessment, general principles of assessments and also specific topics such as how to create multiple choice questions, and how to set standards in assessment.

"Based on their assessment material, we will then employ people to hospitals in Moscow and also run re-accreditation programmes for medical doctors,” he said.

A contract was signed by Dr Hamdy and Koff Nataliya Evgenievna, the acting director of Center for Accreditation and Professional Development in the field of Healthcare, Moscow.

The agreement aims to promote cooperation in medical training and enhance competencies of health personnel across health specialties.

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