HMC Internal Medicine Residency programme gets exceptional score

The Internal Medicine Residents at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) have done immensely well in their recent exams, achieving results in the top 1% of all ACGME-I accredited medical residency programmes worldwide.

The Internal Medicine Residency Programme (IMRP) at HMC is the largest residency programme in Qatar, comprising 200 residents. It is an ACGME-I (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education–International) accredited programme that follows the high standards of US and several other accredited international medical residency programmes.The ACGME-I serves to assess the quality of the residents’ education through comprehensive evaluation tools.ACGME-I’s ultimate goal is to provide the best patient care possible by improving the quality of medical practice, teaching, and research. One category of the residents’ assessment tools is the annual In-Training Exam (ITE). This exam is a web-based self-assessment exam to monitor the progress of the residents’ medical knowledge. It is introduced by the American College of Physicians (ACP) through a committee of 11 expert physician-authors. It is modelled after the American Board of Internal Medicine's certification exam and therefore provides an opportunity to compare HMC’s residents to the US and other international residency programmes. “This year, the ITE was conducted over three days (August 27 and 28, and September 3) and we proudly achieved an exceptional score of 99 percentile," said Dr Dabia al-Mohanadi, programme director of the IMRP and assistant chair for education in medicine department at HMC."This achievement was not easy to reach. It reflects the commitment of our residents, faculty, and directors for continuous improvement to better serve the community.”“The Covid-19 pandemic was one of the biggest challenges that the programme faced in the last two years. Most of our residents were serving in Covid facilities to help care for the Qatari population in different hospitals such as Communicable Disease Center, Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital, Ras Laffan, Mesaieed Hospital, Al Wakra Hospital, and the Surgical Specialty Center in Hamad General Hospital. "Despite those stressful times and long duty hours, the residents kept improving their medical knowledge through providing daily patient care while also engaging in active studying from the available medical resources. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our residents for their dedication, hard work and achievements. We will do our best to ensure that this success is continuous through the coming years as the population of Qatar deserves to have the best physicians to serve their medical needs."Internal Medicine is one of the main specialties a graduating doctor may choose to pursue. Any patient experiencing a serious medical issue will most likely be cared for by an internal medicine physician. This discipline focuses on diverse medical conditions that involve diseases affecting the internal organs of the human body, including the heart, brain, lungs, liver, gastrointestinal track, and kidneys. Internal medicine doctors, known as internists, specialise in preventing, diagnosing, and treating chronic diseases while also promoting and supporting ongoing health. These doctors provide a hugely important service to patients and the amazing results they achieve will contribute to excellent patient care delivered by well qualified healthcare professionals,” Dr al-Mohanadi added.The internal medicine residency programme also held its first Qatar Board of Medical Specialties (QBMS) Part 1 exam on September 8. This exam was proposed by the Higher Committee for Medical Specialties in the Ministry of Public Health. The exam consists of two parts, with the last exam being delivered at the end of the residency programme. The aim of this exam is to improve the scientific knowledge, competency and performance of physicians. The cohort of Medical Residents had an exceptional passing rate of 89.7% in QBMS part 1 exam which is above the average QBMS passing rate of other residency programmes who participated in the exam.