HMI architects Judy Mitchell and Lori Matthews led Dr. Badr and the LAU team on a tour of facilities at Harvard Medical School.

HMI and Lebanese American University team for development of American-style medical school

HMI and Lebanese American University (LAU) have entered into a long-term relationship focused on the development of the LAU School of Medicine (LAUMS), a state-of-the-art academic medical institution based in Byblos, Lebanon. The new school will feature an innovative American-style curriculum designed to bring the best in medical education to the most pressing health care challenges facing the people of Lebanon and the surrounding region.

Dean Kamal Badr

In March an LAU contingent headed by founding medical school Dean Kamal Badr, MD came to Boston for two weeks to commence planning with HMI for every component of the medical school, from the design of the curriculum and principal facilities to the development of key strategies for admissions, faculty and student recruitment, research, and governance. LAU hopes to welcome its first class of medical students in September 2009.

“LAUMS will strive to impact medical education and health care in Lebanon by providing an opportunity for talented Lebanese men and women who aim to pursue an American-style medical education to do so in their home country, in a well-recognized U.S.-based institution developed to meet the latest and highest standards of American medicine,” said Badr. LAU, which has campuses in Beirut and Byblos, is comprised of schools of arts and sciences, business, engineering and architecture. The pursuit of global standards of excellence is not new to the institution—its doctoral program in pharmacy is the only such program offered outside the United States that is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education.

N. Lynn Eckhert

“LAU is undertaking the development of its new medical school with many of the critical ingredients for success already in place,” said N. Lynn Eckhert, MD, MPH, DrPH, HMI Director of Academic Programs. “Dean Badr has brought to the project boundless energy and enthusiasm, which is reflected in the highest hopes of the university’s leadership and the commitment of the school’s American Board of Trustees.”

Although the student body will be drawn from Lebanon and neighboring countries, Badr hopes to attract to LAU’s ranks many Lebanese physician-educators and scientists currently practicing in Europe and the United States, as well as top talent recruited locally. The next six months will be a busy time for the dean, who will be recruiting the leadership team that will help build the educational, research, and clinical components of the medical school, and overseeing the final plans for construction of the school’s principal facility. 

Curriculum will combine global best practices with national focus
The medical school will be modeled after top institutions in the United States, with a curriculum built around four years of undergraduate studies followed by a four-year medical education program. LAU plans to develop signature education programs in women’s health, adolescent and pediatric medicine, geriatrics, neuroscience, and genetic medicine, as well as high-quality centers focused on areas such as cardiac and vascular disease, cancer, and metabolic disorders.

In addition, LAU medical students will receive formal instruction and competency training in three areas of vital importance to the practice of medicine in the 21st century: practice management, the physician’s relation to the pharmaceutical industry, and continuing education, self-monitoring, and self-improvement.

The curriculum will closely integrate clinical and basic science and establish globally-recognized benchmarks for the professional, personal, and ethical well-being of the school’s graduates. An important attribute of the education provided at LAUMS, however, will be its attention to addressing shortcomings in health care quality and access for underserved members of the Lebanese population.  

“Through affiliations and partnerships with medical facilities throughoutLebanon, LAUMS will improve health care delivery in the country, especially its northern, southern, and eastern regions, which are currently underserved both in number and quality of practicing physicians and medical facilities,” said Badr, who added that LAUMS will seek to extend its medical mission to the country’s underprivileged. “I am very strongly convinced of the profoundly positive impact that such activities have on the population being served, and, more significantly, on those serving them, including medical students. Volunteer and community service will be a cornerstone of the mission of LAU medicine.”

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