  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinical And Medical Education Programs
The Office of International Medicine Programs tailors clinical programs which provide comprehensive observational experiences and continuing medical education for international physicians in a variety of specialties. Clinical programs are designed to help partners achieve self-sufficiency in the given specialties and encourage perpetuation of knowledge among physicians within their own country. Visits to the partner's facility by GWUMC physicians alternate with visits to GWUMC by participating physicians. Visitors always spend their days in the host department's normal clinical activities, observing the practices of their counterparts and exchanging knowledge in their specialty. GWUMC faculty who visit other countries provide a wide range of services, from needs assessment to technical demonstrations to clinical patient care. Physicians from abroad receive one-on-one attention and mentoring during their visits to GWUMC, promoting collegiality across national borders.
As a medical college with nearly two hundred-year history, we are equipped to provide expert consultation in faculty training and medical school curriculum development. Senior faculty and deans have worked with faculty from different countries to trade ideas and innovations in medical education. GWUMC also provides curriculum development assistance to newly emerging private medical schools abroad who wish to begin their histories on the cutting edge of medical education.
Assessing an institution's needs is the key developmental building block of management and consultative programs. IMP assembles teams of faculty and staff experts to travel to partners' sites and review practices and conditions in areas specified by the partner. Teams use needs assessment site visits as opportunities to discuss the country's health care environment with the partner's personnel and government representatives, witness the workings of the country's health care system, and experience the partner's daily operations firsthand. GWUMC also gains valuable socio-cultural information from site visits that is very useful in customizing programs. The team then assembles a comprehensive report of its observations, with recommendations based upon the visit and the partner's stated needs. IMP designs and promotes clinical partnerships with hospitals, ministries of health, and other institutions and agencies around the world.
Successful collaborations around the world:
CHINA
Integrated Emergency, Critical Care and Anesthesiology Health Care Delivery
Training Program
A collaborative training program developed with a Chinese hospital provided senior physicians with a strong clinical experience and a basic overview of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, an emerging specialty in China for which little formal training is available. These activities helped to achieve the goal of building a stronger, more integrated infrastructure and greater self-sufficiency in emergency medicine, critical care, and anesthesia. The practical value of the participating physicians' learning is reflected in the dramatic improvement of care rendered. GWUMC faculty visited the hospital in 1997 to assess the facility's initial status according to its stated needs and objectives, which included ICU management and quality assurance. Faculty observed operations in critical care, anesthesiology, and emergency medicine and developed a plan for training and quality improvement measures based upon their observations and input from medical staff. Based on the needs assessment, GWUMC developed a clinical training program with specific learning objectives. Two physicians per year trained as observers at GWUMC in 1998, and 1999. GWUMC faculty followed up with visits to China and on-site training in 1998, 1999, and 2000. Physicians who participated in observer training at GWUMC were able to improve their overall knowledge base in critical care medicine and anesthesiology, understand their integration into the overall hospital system, and update their knowledge of monitoring techniques and technology. The program helped the hospital attain substantial improvements in quality of patient care and critical care unit operations, as well as greatly improved national Department of Health ratings. Work continues in 2001 with reciprocal faculty visits.
EGYPT
Visiting Faculty Program
GWUMC visiting faculty have made visits to a private partner hospital in Cairo, Egypt for clinical visits in Breast Care, General Surgery, Laparoscopic Surgery, Medical Oncology, Pathology, and Urology. As part of this collaboration they have provided clinical patient care, trained healthcare professionals through the demonstration of new procedures and techniques, provided and participated in educational activities such as lectures and short courses, and assisted in the evaluation of quality of care. This partnership expanded into other programs as Egyptian faculty visited GWUMC for study tours, and students spent one-month rotations in Emergency Medicine and Surgery.
GERMANY
Needs Assessment
IMP led a five-day needs assessment site visit to the former East Germany to gauge the needs and goals of possible recipient facilities of grants from a German-American foundation. Grants were designated to fund continuing physician education and provide financial resources to hospital and clinic facilities in a selected eastern German state. The site visit team met with officials of the Ministry for Social, Health, and Family Welfare in the selected state to learn the structure of the health care system and the status of health and medical practice within the state. By visiting a regional university medical center, a private specialty care facility, the local medical society, and a health and hygiene museum, the team was able to learn about eastern Germany's need for comprehensive primary care education and further development in epidemiology, educational models, and biotechnology research.
SAUDI ARABIA
Saudi-US Universities Project
The Saudi-US Universities Project was designed to assist the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in developing a preeminent medical center for the Middle East, to enable Saudi Arabian professionals to develop and maintain excellent international recognition in medicine for the Kingdom, and ultimately to enable Saudi nationals to take over the delivery of health care in the Kingdom. The objectives for the project were for a large multi-specialty government hospital to meet standards established by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and to have Saudi nationals become the primary providers of health care services at this facility and others in Saudi Arabia. GWUMC inaugurated the project with a site visit by senior faculty and chairmen, who reviewed the services, provided by the facility and compiled a comprehensive report outlining their recommendations. Clinical programs developed and implemented based pon the needs assessment included visiting faculty programs, quality assurance/quality improvement programs, telemedicine, and on-site endosurgical training.
GWUMC provided twelve FTE (full time equivalent) senior clinical physicians to the Saudi hospital over 24 months, including specialists in Surgery, Medicine, Radiology, and Emergency Medicine to provide clinical patient care, assist in the evaluation of the quality of care, assist in the education and training of health care professionals, and evaluate the structure and functions of the hospital in relation to JCAHO standards. Other experts analyzed the quality of systems and techniques in the department of Radiology, developed of a core set of quality indicators for the hospital and its clinical departments, designed modern data collection systems to integrate performance data throughout the facility. GWUMC also helped the facility in improving the quality of patient care by drafting of a mission statement to commit the facility to Total Quality Management (TQM) and offering TQM workshops and courses to senior administrative and clinical staff. Clinical programs were offered in conjunction with degree programs in medicine and the health sciences, graduate medical education, and short-term training.
VIETNAM
Faculty Exchange Program
The Vietnam faculty exchange project began with a needs assessment site visit to a medical college in southern Vietnam and to health care facilities in the region. A team of faculty and staff experts in surgery, clinical education, and public health visited urban and rural charity hospitals and a larger municipal hospital to become acquainted with health care conditions and infrastructure in Vietnam. The visit to the medical college allowed the team to witness medical school teaching, tour the facilities, and meet the faculty members who would later participate in observer training at GWUMC. The training program was designed around the needs stated by the Vietnamese faculty during the visit, and a comprehensive set of recommendations was developed for eventual expansion of the program into student exchanges and medical informatics.
New Underway Projects:
EGYPT
Alexandria University College of Medicine
The Alexandria University College of Medicine are interested medical student exchange programs and curriculum development in the undergraduate (MD Program) and graduate (Residency Programs) levels. The Office of International Medicine Programs will visit the AUCM to conduct need assessment.
LEBANON
Trad Hospital
The Office of International Medicine Programs had a series of successful meetings with Trad Hospital Administration and agreed on a set of future projects. These projects include multi-specialty observerships and exchange programs for faculty, residents and students.
Hammoud Hospital
Hammoud Hospital is interested in developing a wound management center, and in having collaborations in resident and medical student exchange programs and observational nursing and technicians. The Office of International Medicine Programs will conduct a site visit in September 2004 to assess the facilities and the educational programs.