Abu Dhabi: Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC has signed an agreement with Royal College Canada International (RCI) to enhance postgraduate medical education in Abu Dhabi.
The agreement will help facilitate SSMC’s application for Royal College Institutional and Programme Accreditation. This will enable SSMC trainees, who have successfully completed all their postgraduate medical education training to undertake the specialty and subspecialty certification exams of the Royal College, and become eligible to receive the Royal College certification.
SSMC is one of the UAE’s largest hospitals, and a joint-venture partnership between Abu Dhabi public health provider, the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha), and the US-based research-focussed health provider, Mayo Clinic.
The new collaboration between SSMC and Mayo Clinic will improve access to sub-specialisation and fellowship-training opportunities in Canadian programmes by facilitating introductions to Canadian programmes. It will also advance SSMC’s aim of strengthening postgraduate medical education research capacity and infrastructure for faculty and resident trainees under the supervision of SSMC, including a programme to train and develop clinician investigators.
“Education, innovation and research are the propeller of clinical practice and play a major role in building the complex care destination medical center that aligns with SSMC and Mayo Clinic model of health care delivery. SSMC’s three shields mission is one key differentiator for the destination medical center. We have a great opportunity through the education shield and its five centers to enhance medical education offerings, and train the next generation of health care professionals and leaders. We are delighted to be working alongside RCI to nurture the medical knowledge and skills of our faculty to be better educators for the large number of learners we currently host at SSMC. This will also allow us to achieve some of our strategic priorities related to building the right workforce to deliver trusted quality and exceptional services in respond to the evolving health care needs of the patients in the region, and become the preferred integrated multispecialty health care destination,” said Dr Naser Ammash, chief executive officer at SSMC.
“We look forward to collaborating with RCI, as part of our commitment at SSMC to create an optimal education ecosystem, comprehensive of opportunities that combine medical practice and education to help broaden the knowledge and skillset of our faculty. At SSMC, our enhanced focus on transforming the way we develop our medical professionals means that we are always looking at how we can utilise the best tools and ingredients to build a conducive, nurturing, and educational environment,” said Dr Abba Zubair, dean of Education at SSMC.
Dr Ammash and Dr Susan D. Moffatt-Bruce, president and CEO of RCI, signed the exchange of agreement and chaired the signing ceremony of the convention. Additionally, the executive director of the International Collaboration Office, Craig Ceppetelli, Dr Zubair, Dr Rola Al Hayek, education director, Dr Abdulkarim Saleh, the associate dean of the GME Centre at SSMC, and Reem Al Husari, the GME Centre administrator, were also in attendance.
