MAY / JUNE 2007
BULLETIN
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Preliminary rendering of the site design, showing a row of centuries-old banyan trees that will be be preserved. |
Major progress in development of new hospital in Xiamen
Xiamen University and its affiliate FuPond, LLC expect to break ground by the end of the year on a 500-bed tertiary care hospital. The Xiamen University-FuPond International Hospital will offer state-of-the-art general medical and surgical care, specializing in cardiovascular and oncology services, and serve as the teaching affiliate of the Xiamen University Medical School.
The highly regarded Xiamen University is located on the southeastern coast of China in the province of Fujian. FuPond is a U.S.-based group that includes Chief Executive Officer Dr. James Ming Fang, a Harvard-trained gastroenterologist, and a cadre of Chinese-American physicians who have agreed to join the staff of the new hospital.
HMI and FuPond are playing a major role in the hospital’s design and development, including inputs into the clinical program plan, which has already been completed. In addition to general medical and surgical services, the hospital will have signature programs in cardiovascular care, oncology, and women’s health, all supported by leading-edge medical technology to provide patient-focused care. These programs will serve as the basis for a world-class hospital in China.
The HMI team includes Albert E. Gillis, MBA, RT, Director of Health Care Facilities Development, and Judith Mitchell, AIA, Director of Planning. In April they met with Dr. Fang and architects from TRO Jung Brannen, the U.S.-based architectural firm that is developing the design. The group reviewed the initial schematic design of the hospital and made several adjustments to the spacing plan and the locations of various clinical departments. The April meetings followed a March visit to the Xiamen campus, where the team presented initial design concepts to Professor Chong-Shi Zhu, President of Xiamen University, his staff, and representatives of the Xiamen Municipal government.
As the schematic design is being finalized, the team will begin to focus on the conceptual design of each hospital department.
“We are working to integrate global departmental standards with local regulatory practices so as to ensure efficient patient flow and allow for synergies between disciplines,” said Mitchell. “The challenges presented by this project have stimulated the kind of creative approaches that will ultimately benefit the finished hospital as well as future development projects.”
Gillis said the hospital planners had an unusual challenge to overcome in developing a site plan for the new facility. “The physical design of the hospital accommodates some existing buildings and an impressive row of centuries-old banyan trees that winds through the site,” said Gillis. “What was once an obstacle we believe will accent the hospital in a unique and positive way.” Gillis added, “This is a particularly beautiful site directly on Xiamen Bay, which will provide outstanding views from the inpatients’ rooms.”
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| James Gordon (right) will help the UNFM develop a simulation center modeled after the simulation laboratories at Harvard Medical School. |
French medical school partner to develop simulation center
The University of Nice Faculty of Medicine (UNFM) is collaborating with HMI on the development of a simulation-based education center designed to enhance clinical skills acquisition among the institution’s undergraduate medical students.
HMI has been working with the French university since 2005 to develop high-quality education programs and to promote improvements in emergency medicine. HMI and the Emergency Department at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have provided exchange programs with UNFM as well as a series of Mortality & Morbidity teleconferences.
The simulation center project is being spearheaded by the medical school Dean Daniel Benchimol, MD, who sees simulation-based teaching as a way to bridge the basic and clinical sciences while helping students to develop critical thinking and communication skills. The medical school plans to build and equip three simulation laboratories, each of which will include a patient simulator and web-enabled plasma screen and accommodate up to 10 students at a time. These laboratories are being designed based on those at Harvard Medical School (HMS).
Sharon Kleefield, PhD, HMI Director of Health Care Quality, and James Gordon, MD, MPA, who directs the Gilbert Program in Medical Simulation at HMS and is on the Emergency Medicine faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital, are working with Benchimol and other members of the Nice faculty in the initial planning phase of the project. Benchimol expects the simulation center to be completed in time to begin integrating it into the curriculum in October 2007.
This project, says Kleefield, is the first in France to introduce simulation-based curricula for undergraduate medical education. It will serve as a model for other French medical schools and will, in the future, be available to other medical schools outside of Nice. Several faculty from Harvard Medical School will participate in this project over the course of the next two years.
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Dubai Harvard Foundation awards fellowships to Gulf journalists
Three science writers from the United Arab Emirates will come to Harvard Medical School (HMS) for a weeklong fellowship program offered by the Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research. The program, conducted in association with the HMS Office of Public Affairs, is designed to give the journalists the opportunity to increase the depth and breadth of their reporting on health care, medical innovation, and scientific research.
Candidates for the program were required to be early to mid-career journalists currently working in the Gulf Region and experienced or interested in writing and reporting on health care and science. The fellowship awardees and their newspaper employers are Nadeya Ibrahaim (Al Bayan), Abrar Mikkawi (Gulf Today), and Alia Al Theeb (Gulf News).
Don Gibbons, Associate Dean of Public Affairs at HMS, will lead the five-day program. Each day will be devoted to a specific area of science writing and reporting: basic research and discovery; clinical research and clinical trials; announcing medical innovation; health care policy, access, quality, standards, and licensure; and specialized and continuing medical innovation. Daily activities will include interviews with HMS faculty, writing workshops, and visits to local media outlets and HMS-affiliated laboratories and hospitals.
The Science Writers Fellowship Program is part of the Foundation’s mission to help drive a resurgence in scientific inquiry and discovery in the Middle East, and lead to innovations that will address the region’s most pressing health problems. For more information, visit the Foundation website at www.dhfmr.hms.harvard.edu.
HMSDC Tamayoz Awards recognize emerging leaders in Middle Eastern health care community
The Harvard Medical School Dubai Center (HMSDC) Institute for Postgraduate Education & Research joined Dubai Healthcare City to honor six health care professionals for excellence in in clinical care and medical research. The Tamayoz Awards were established to recognize the achievements of individual practitioners and trainees while reinforcing the importance of education and research in the continued advance of the Gulf Region health care community.
The recipients of the HMSDC Tamayoz Awards were nominated by their peers and selected by a panel comprised of faculty from Harvard Medical School. The promise of youth was a prerequisite for selection: all nominees were required to be less than 40 years of age.
Each awardee will complete a one-month observership in a Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospital or laboratory.
The Young Physician Awards were presented to Ali Al-Obaidli, MD, chief of transplant services at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi, and Khawla Al-Kuraya, MD, a researcher who focuses on developing tools for cancer management at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh.
The awards for Nursing and Healthcare Professionals were presented to Miharu Yamakawa, BSc, a physiotherapist specializing in orthopedics and pediatrics at the Emirates Integrated Medical Center in Dubai, and Einas Al-Eisa, PhD, an assistant professor at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia.
The Trainee Awards were given to Nabeela Ahmed, MClin Dent, a senior registrar in pediatric dentistry at the Department of Health and Medical Services in Dubai, and Subhi Al’ Aref, a third-year medical student at Weill Cornell Medical School in Qatar who is an active member of a research team focused on cystic fibrosis.
HMI partners in the news: A thriving institution, an inspirational leader
The April edition of Express Healthcare Management includes a profile of Sri Ramachandra Medical College & Research Institute. The institution, which has partnered with HMI for a decade, continues to enrich its educational programs while pursuing global quality standards in its main hospital. Krishna Seshadri, MD, the Vice President of Sri Ramachandra Medical International, remarks of HMI, “They have been responsible for our series of education, quality and accreditation drives and faculty exchange. Our ambulatory care was the brainchild of HMI.”
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| Dr. Muhadditha Al Hashmi |
Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) head Dr. Muhadditha Al Hashmi is the subject of a recent article in ArabianBusiness.com. As Chief Executive Officer of DHCC, she presides over an ambitious project whose aim, as she states it, is to “raise the bar in the region and to gain patient trust.” In addition to highlighting DHCC’s quality improvement strategy and the rigorous standards that must be met by its clinical operators, the article hints at the enhanced local career opportunities for Middle Eastern-born health care professionals and educators.
Copyright 2007 Harvard Medical International