Back to Front PageVOLUME 6, NUMBER 4

Cornell Set to Establish Medical School in Qatar

By Jennifer Proctor

At the announcement of the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar are (from left): Daniel Alonso, M.D.; Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.); Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings, Ph.D.; Rep. Sue Kelly (R-N.Y.); Harold Tanner, Cornell Board of Trustees; Sanford Weill, Medical College Board of Overseers; Abdulredha Abdulrehaman, Qatar Foundation; and Antonio Gotto, M.D., dean of Weill Cornell Medical College.

Seeking to expand educational diplomacy and its international presence, Cornell University has announced that it is establishing the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, a 4,416-square-mile country on the Persian Gulf. In doing so, Cornell will become the first American university to establish an overseas branch of its own medical school that will be staffed with its faculty, abide by its academic standards, and grant its own M.D. degree to graduates.

"We are entering uncharted territory," says Daniel Alonso, M.D., dean of the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. "It broadens our horizons, gives us the opportunity to contribute to educational diplomacy, and fulfills our leadership's interest in expanding the school's global presence."

The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development pursued the relationship with Cornell. The foundation, established by the country's head of state, Sheikh Hamad Bin Kalifa Al-Thani, and chaired by his wife, Sheika Mouza Bint Nasser Al-Misnad, aims to bring quality education to the region. Currently, aspiring doctors from Qatar must travel to other countries for their medical education. The Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar will be part of a planned "education city" in Doha, Qatar's capital, that will include a variety of schools for students of all ages.

"Qatar's leaders see the school's establishment of a branch in their country as an extraordinary development as they invest significantly in education and health care," Dr. Alonso says. "This is just one of their steps."

The Qatar campus will offer a six-year program divided into two years of premedical education and four years of medical education. Each section will have its own admissions process. The premedical program will commence in 2002, and the medical program will start two years later in 2004. Classes will be taught in English and will include men and women, making it the first coeducational higher education program in Qatar.

While Cornell is certainly pioneering its own brand of modern medical education abroad, the medical school is not alone in its international endeavors. Academic medical centers across the United States have forged alliances with medical institutions across the globe. For example, Ohio State University's College of Medicine and Public Health recently entered into a five-year cooperative agreement with the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Tokyo. The schools hope to promote mutual cooperation in education and scientific research.

Qatar's capital, Doha, will be home to Cornell's new overseas branch.

Harvard Medical International (HMI) also works collaboratively with other institutions to create improved medical education, health care delivery, and biomedical research throughout the world. "The globalization of education is an extension of what we are seeing in other industries, and Cornell is breaking new ground for American medical schools in the modern era," says Robert Crone, M.D., president and chief executive officer of HMI. "Programs that stretch beyond national borders are particularly challenging in health care."

Cornell's establishment of a medical school in a foreign nation will bring its own set of unique challenges, including gaining accreditation of its M.D. program in Qatar. While the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the sole determinant of accreditation programs in the United States, currently allows U.S. medical schools to have satellite campuses, those campuses have been in North America. The Cornell branch adds a whole new level of complexity for the LCME's consideration.

Dr. Crone predicts that recruiting Cornell-caliber faculty members for the school's Qatar campus will be another challenge for the university. "How does one select, maintain, and support the faculty needed in order to ensure that there is a single standard? Maintaining two faculties at this distance could be problematic."

But Dr. Alonso says his initial recruiting efforts at Cornell's New York City and Ithaca campuses have piqued a lot of interest. Faculty will voluntarily teach in Qatar for varying lengths of time, and faculty members from other U.S. and European schools will be considered if they qualify for Cornell appointments. Dr. Alonso stresses that all faculty members will be thoroughly educated about cultural sensitivity before they teach in Qatar.

He adds that above all the country of Qatar will benefit from Cornell's presence. "People will have access to quality medical education, and, ultimately, citizens will receive better medical care from Cornell-trained physicians."

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08 August 2001