Be a doctor, save lives

Representatives from the Harvard Medical School were in Dubai recently. They spoke to Reema Saffarini about a career in medicine

There are people who choose to mould youngsters' minds and become teachers and others who choose to make their childhood building block game a profession and become engineers. However, there are always those people who will fit perfectly in an ER or Strong Medicine episode to save lives.

Notes met Dr Joseph Martin, dean of the faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and Dr Nancy Andrews, Leland Fikes professor of paediatrics and dean of Basic Sciences and Graduate Studies at HMS, who spoke about the prospects of a career in medicine.

They were talking at a symposium organised by the Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research in Dubai recently.

Do you think students still opt to study medicine despite emerging new career options?
Andrews: I think that over time and in each generation there will always be a group of students who will be interested in becoming doctors.

What is the most popular field of medicine among students these days?
Martin: Almost half of our graduates go for general medicine, become surgeons or go into paediatrics. Specialties, however, vary to include radioecology and phonology. Fifteen per cent of graduates also chose to go into medical research.

What are the career prospects of medicine?
Andrews: We live in exciting times, especially for students who consider biosciences. New developments and discoveries are made every day. Medicine is a very exhilarating career besides the fact that as you practise you know you are helping others and saving lives. It is a continuous learning experience. You just have to keep up.

What makes a good doctor?
Andrews: Communication is the key. A doctor should be able to communicate with his patients clearly, understand their fears and listen to what they have to say. A doctor should know how to respond to his patients and their fears.

Is it important for doctors to specialise in a field of medicine?
Andrews: A lot of students prefer to specialise in a field and master it. There are always, however, new ideas to absorb, which doctors should be open to.

Martin: I think it varies. There is always need for general practitioners and specialty doctors. At the end they need to work together to achieve a goal.

What do you think is special about Harvard Medical School?
Andrews: I remember that I made the choice as a student to go to Harvard Medical School where I wanted to be close to new discoveries in medicine and scientific education. I believe there is a good dialogue between education and practice that the school delivers to its students.

How many students from the Middle East and Asia are enrolled in Harvard Medical School?
Martin: We accept at the school about 165 students out of 5,000 applications we receive every year. We have a number of international students from the Middle East, India, Pakistan and Eastern Europe.

We were never disappointed with the quality of the students we receive. Many of the students we get are brilliant and are considered a brain loss for their countries, which is why we encourage them to go back to their countries.

About 30 per cent of the students are second generation Americans, who were born in America of immigrant parents from Asia, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. They all come with terrific ambitions.

What are the criteria for choosing students?
Martin: We look for students who are smart, show an interest in medical sciences and healthcare and who have done something special in their lives such as doing some volunteer work in India or were involved in healthcare projects internationally.

Andrews: We choose students who look like leaders.

Any advice for those interesting in studying medicine?
Martin: Study hard, but do not memorise books. Look at the broad range of opportunities medicine provides... childcare, epidemiology, public health ... .

There is no profession as exciting as medicine. You can work in research. Think broadly and keep researching.

Andrews: Stay open to change and continue to renew yourself.

Harvard students undergo work experience in Dubai

Brandon Hudspeth and Christopher Carter came to Dubai looking for real life experience. The two public policy graduate students from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University came for a one week visit to work on understanding and marketing Dubai e-government services as part of a university graduation programme.

Their visit, the first to the UAE and the Middle East, not only provided them with material to fill 40 pages of school report, but also gave them a better understanding of Dubai's economy, people and culture.

How it started

Hudspeth and Carter were required to complete a Policy Analysis Exercise, a capstone project in which they get to clarify and address a practical policy or management problem for a real-world client.

"We wanted to apply the course in Dubai. We got in touch with students who have been here before and looked up contacts. We decided to tackle the issue of e-government services in Dubai," said Carter.

Why Dubai

Understanding the Middle East was the reason for choosing Dubai. "We had discussions between the both of us of where to go. We both have experience oversees so we looked at the Middle East and its growth and development. We wanted to understand more about the culture and the economic development, which we have not seen before in any other country," said Hudspeth.

The project

• Carter and Hudspeth started working on their project in September last year.
  
• "Once we made the contacts we got details of what is involved in e-government services and its challenges in Dubai. The adoption of services was the issue we decided to tackle. All government services are online and we wanted to see how we can market these services for people's use," said Carter.
  
• He added that their target was to fit their work within the vision of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum,Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in making more than 50 per cent of government transactions done online and 90 per cent of government services available online.
  
• "We developed a work plan. It was tough. We did our preliminary research and we looked at best practices in e-government, e-commerce, online transactions around the world," explained Carter. 
  
• The Dubai School of Government facilitated the students' Dubai visit and arranged for them to meet government officials.
  
• "The project is near completion. Our submission deadline is April 4. We have a firm deadline at Kennedy School of Government that we have to meet. We are planning to also take our project to our advisor to help us crunch the data and information we've collected and maybe take it further," said Hudspeth.
  
  The two students visited 12 out of 24 governmental departments in Dubai.
  
• "We'd gather all the information in the morning and then go back to our hotel rooms at night where Chris has plastered our notes all over a wall. We'd sit and crunch all the information we got. The officials here have been very liberal with their times. They listened to what we had until we exhausted out questions," said Hudspeth.

Almost Utopia

Looking beyond school work, Hudspeth and Carter learned more about the traditions of the UAE.

• "As individuals we got to know the culture. This is the first time we have visited Dubai and the Middle East so this has been a great exchange for us," said Hudspeth.
  
• He described the growth of the country as a "pleasant surprise", where he saw a high level of "sophistication".
  
• Carter believed that Dubai and the UAE have defied the common notions of what a Middle Eastern country is like.
  
• "Not only it is economically growing, but you can see the tolerance and the mix of cultures. It is very powerful and amazing. It is mind-boggling. Look at the developments, the tolerance and low crime rates. I am not saying this is Utopia, but it is amazing," he said.
  
• Hudspeth added: "To us it has been a great experience as African Americans."

The John F Kennedy School of Government

• Established in 1936, the school used to be known as Harvard's Graduate School of Public Administration.
  
• It offers two-year masters programmes that include a Masters in Public Policy (MPP), Masters in Public Policy/Urban Planning (MPP/UP) Masters in Public Administration/International Development (MPA/ID) and a Two-Year Masters in Public Administration (MPA2).
  www.ksg.harvard.edu