As part of Hamad Medical Corporation’s vision of creating an internationally competitive Academic Health System (AHS), HMC is currently pursuing the endorsement of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education International (ACGME-I). Qatar is the second country in the world outside the USA, besides Singapore, and the first country in the Middle East, to be officially considered for accreditation by the ACGME-I. The ACGME-I mandates that the highest educational and training standards are implemented before the accreditation is granted.
The Pediatrics Department, in line with this corporate-wide initiative, established the “ACGME-I Preparedness Committee,” which is chaired by Dr. Al Anoud Al Ansari. The committee strives to ensure that all aspects of ACGME-I requirements are met by the Pediatrics Department.
The committee helped in developing a new curriculum and introduced new assessment tools in alignment with the ACGME-I requirements. It works in collaboration with the CME committee to conduct regularly scheduled didactic activities as per the ACGME-I requirements and guides the faculty development activities towards the preparation for the accreditation process.
ACGME-I completed the required internal/department review on 5 January, 2012, and will visit HMC in October to conduct an institutional evaluation. The committee is currently preparing all the required documents for the mock visit in October and the official evaluation in 2013.
The Department of Pediatrics is highly committed to the accreditation process as it serves to assure the graduation of highly competent future pediatricians and, ultimately, providing the safest and the highest quality of care to our patients.
