• Q: What is the Harvard Medical School Dubai Center (HMSDC)?
  • A: The Harvard Medical School Dubai Center (HMSDC) Institute for Postgraduate Education and Research was established to foster the professional development of physicians, nurses, research scientists, and allied health professionals in the Gulf Region. Launched in 2004 in a joint effort by Harvard Medical International (HMI) and Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), HMSDC is part of the Government of Dubai's mission to develop DHCC into a center of excellence for health care delivery, medical education, and research.
  • Q: What kinds of programs does HMSDC offer?
  • A: HMSDC's professional development and education programs fall into two broad categories: continuing medical education (CME) and postgraduate training.

    HMSDC offers a wide range of CME programs open to physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals in the Gulf Region. Each program is led by a multidisciplinary faculty drawn from preeminent academic medical centers around the world as well as local institutions. HMSDC works to ensure that each program maintains academic independence, and that course content is consistent with the principles of evidence-based medicine.

    The HMSDC postgraduate training program provides selected health care professionals with opportunities to advance their knowledge and skills under the tutelage of recognized leaders in academic medicine. All trainees participate in a rigorous curriculum that has a specific focus, educational goals, and requirements. The programs are designed to provide the most comprehensive educational experience by developing the trainee's clinical skills and expertise in a specific area of clinical investigation. These programs currently take place in affiliated institutions of Harvard Medical School, with later programs to be hosted at the Academic Medical Center (AMC) which will be located within Dubai Healthcare City.
  • Q: What is continuing medical education?
  • A: Continuing medical education (CME) is a continuous process of acquiring new knowledge and skills throughout one's professional life. Because undergraduate and postgraduate education is insufficient to ensure physicians' lifelong competence, it is essential to maintain the competencies of physicians, to remedy gaps in skills, and to enable professionals to respond to the challenges of rapidly growing knowledge and technologies, changing health needs, and the social, political, and economic factors of the practice of medicine. Continuing medical education depends heavily upon learner motivation and self-directed learning skills. In some countries (such as the US) a physician is mandated by law to obtain a given number of hours of CME in order to have a license to practice.
  • Q: What is postgraduate training?
  • A: Postgraduate training includes any education that a physician receives after graduating as a physician. In practice it is mostly applied to the defined education programs that newly graduated doctors take to train to become specialists, such as heart surgeons.
  • Q: How are HMSDC's education programs developed?
  • A: HMSDC collaborates with regional health authorities, local hospitals and universities, and medical societies and specialty groups to identify areas of need and interest, and develop customized programs that are relevant to practice. An Academic Council is being established to provide program oversight and evaluation. In addition, HMSDC seeks input from independent authorities to help ensure the strength of its programs.
  • Q: What is the role of Harvard University in HMSDC?
  • A: Harvard University, through its subsidiary organization Harvard Medical International (HMI), has a strategic collaboration with the Government of Dubai aimed at making Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) a center of excellence for health care delivery, medical education, and research. To support education activities at DHCC, HMI and DHCC developed the Harvard Medical School Dubai Center. Its programs and infrastructure depend on contributions from faculty throughout Harvard University, particularly those of Harvard Medical School and its 18 affiliated hospitals, who teach in a wide variety of education programs offered through HMSDC.
  • Q: Does Harvard University have plans to start a medical school in Dubai or the Gulf Region?
  • A: HMSDC is focused on providing postgraduate medical education and continuing professional development. There are no plans currently to develop a medical school to provide undergraduate medical education.