Doctors can take the exam conducted by the British Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health three or four years after qualifying

Medical students and doctors in the UAE, particularly those interested in paediatrics, have much to celebrate.

Dubai is now a centre for the clinical examinations of the UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).

Sir Alan Craft, President of RCPCH, made the official announcement on March 10 at a press conference presided over by Hamad Abdul Rahman Al Midfa, UAE Minister of Health.

At the conference, organised by the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the UAE University (UAEU), Craft recognised the need to “have measurable standards” for medicine.

“Patients now know exactly what they want” and hence there should be a way of knowing whether doctors caring for them are up to the mark, he said.

He then presented certificates to doctors from Al Ain and Dubai who had been certified by RCPCH to act as examiners in Dubai.

Craft later spoke to Notes. He said the MRCPCH is a “postgraduate exam for doctors who are going to be looking after children.

They take the exam about three or four years after qualifying as a doctor”.

Professor John Osborne, Assistant Officer for Overseas Examinations, explained that MRCPCH can only be taken after doctors have passed Parts I and II.

“Part I is an all-day paper looking at basic sides of children, and their development and illnesses. Part II is more detail related to clinical diagnosis, problems and management,” he said.

The establishment of Dubai as a centre for the MRCPCH exam opens up several possibilities for students once they finish their basic medical degree and internship.

Currently postgraduate specialisation options available in the UAE in paediatrics, gynaecology, surgery, internal medicine and other fields are mainly through the Arab Board examinations.

Dr Yousuf Abdul Razzaq, Professor and Consultant in Paediatrics and Neonatology and Vice-Dean at UAEU, said students can enrol in a four-year training programme after they complete their internships.

In these four years they sit for the Part I and Part II exams so that at the end of the programme they are eligible to take the MRCPCH and the Arab Boards.

“The UAE started its [training] programmes about 10 years ago with the city of Al Ain, where the UAEU is situated, playing the leading role in this regard,” he said.

Passing the MRCPCH “gives you a specialty status,” said Abdul Razzaq, now a senior fellow of the RCPCH.

The doctor then gets five years of work experience as a specialist before achieving “consultant status”.

According to Osborne, doctors who have achieved the specialist position can choose to sub-specialise in certain aspects of children’s diseases.

“There comes a time when you have to test the doctors’ ability with real children, if they know how to relate to them, how to examine them and work out what’s wrong with them,” Osborne said.

“MRCPCH shows that they are trained as a good basic paediatrician.”

Notes asked Sir Alan Craft about his impression about the quality of medical education in the region.

He said, “I have examined your medical students, and those in Kuwait and Muscat. They are every bit as good as in the UK, with very high standards, and there are very good health services, and we need to make sure that that goes on.”

Craft said that having Dubai host the MRCPCH will “help develop and drive up the standard of postgraduate education across the whole of the UAE”.

Doctors of all nationalities can appear for the exam after clearing Parts I and II.

A pilot examination of the MRCPCH was held at Al Wasl Hospital, Dubai, recently to give doctors and examiners a chance to learn about it before the actual exam is held in May.

UAE University helps develop environmental data portal
Abu Dhabi’s Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (ERWDA) has launched a major project in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

It is aimed at providing researchers, government agencies and the public at large with easily accessible high-quality spatial environmental data.

Known as the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI), it will ultimately support sustainable decision and policy-making in the UAE.

ERWDA chose UAE University’s College of IT to develop the AGEDI dynamic data portal using advanced information technologies to provide interactive capabilities, which will allow scientists and researchers in the field to share and explore information in real time.

“We are very impressed with the quality of IT developers in UAE University’s College of IT,” said Majid Al Mansouri, Secretary-General of ERWDA.

“They have done an impressive job developing phase 1 of the AGEDI portal. We look forward to continuing our collaboration on phase 2 of the portal.”

The writer is a mass communications student and editor of the university newspaper at the American University of Sharjah