Doha: Qatar University (QU) College of Pharmacy held the first Middle East Conference on Interprofessional Education (IPE) under the theme ‘New Frontiers in Healthcare Education’.
The conference, the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, aimed to showcase IPE in the Middle East. It was organised under the sponsorship of the Supreme Council of Health (SCH), and in the academic partnership with QU colleges of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and Medicine (CMED), University of Calgary in Qatar (UCQ), and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).
QU President Dr Hassan Rashid Al Derham opened the conference in the presence of Minister of Public Health H E Abdullah bin Khalid Al Qahtani, QU Acting Vice-President and Research and Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) Director Dr Darwish Al Emadi, CPH Dean and Chair of the Conference Advisory Committee Dr Ayman El Kadi, CPH Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Dr Mohammad Diab, CPH Assistant Dean, Student Affairs, Chair of the Organising Committee Dr Alla El Awaisi, about 215 representatives of local and international healthcare and medical institutions and QU leadership, faculty, staff and students.
Dr Al Derham said: “The health sector in Qatar has taken tremendous leaps in the past years and expanded in scope, coverage and quality of its services. Throughout the process of strategic expansion, QU has been a major partner in educating the health cadre. This involvement was recently intensified by the inauguration of the first national College of Medicine. Together with College of Pharmacy and health sciences programmes, health and medical education at QU has moved into a new era.
“To our students, I say that gaining IPE experiences in your academic journey is a gift that will keep on giving in your professional and personal lives and will inspire you to be effective communicators, generous knowledge-sharers, and excellent leaders and drivers of change,” he added.
The three-day event brought together over 300 healthcare leaders from 13 countries, including Qatar, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the UK, and the US.
They discussed and exchanged ideas and strategies to integrate an IPE approach into the curriculum and teaching methodologies.
Keynote speakers were CAIPE President Prof Hugh Barr; Professor of Interprofessional Education at University of Leicester Prof Elizabeth Anderson; Associate Principal at University of British Columbia College of Health Disciplines Dr Lesley Bainbridge; and Professor of Pharmacy at University of Manitoba and Member of Canadian Inter-professional Health Collaborative Steering Committee Dr Ruby Grymonpre. They reviewed development, implementation and impact of IPE in schools and onsite experience.
The Peninsula
