WHO Collaborating Centre

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Health Professionals’ Education Development

The College of Medicine and Health Sciences has recognized the relationship between health professions education and evidence-based health care and has been a pioneer in the region in both fields. To emphasize the need for more research and to provide further impetus to the efforts in the two areas, the university has established a Centre which offers training evidence-based healthcare and medical education. Since August 2006, the College has been designated as a WHO collaborating centre for educational development and training. In January 2019 the Center was redesignated as WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Professionals’ educational Development. The Center serves as a Centre for human and technical resources and organizes national and regional workshops and training courses in both evidence-based healthcare and medical education for all the countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Mission

WHO Collaborative Centre for Health Professionals’ Education Development is dedicated to the promotion of evidence-based approaches in healthcare as well as medical education in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. It aims to achieve this through education, research and provision of technical support services, and human resources for training of health professionals on evidence-based medicine.

Vision

The Centre’s vision is to become a world class learning resource and research nucleus in evidence-based healthcare and medical education for all the countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
The Centre’s aims are: 

  • Providing training and courses in medical education and evidence-based medicine.
  • Providing training in conducting systematic reviews/meta-analyses in the field of healthcare and medical education.
  • Facilitating formulation and implementation of evidence-based practice clinical guidelines in the Gulf region.
  • Facilitating improvement in the quality of healthcare and health professions education through promotion of evidence-based approaches.
  • Serving as a Centre for human and technical resources for promotion of evidence–based healthcare and medical education.

The University also participates in several regional initiatives such as the GCC Medical College Deans’ Committee which provides a framework for regional standards for medical education and training and initiates and supports the provision of quality medical education in GCC member countries using international quality assurance programmes. Several projects have been initiated and implemented by the GCC Medical College Deans’ Committee. The Centre is also active in other international collaborative activities such as the World Federation of Medical Education (WFME).

The terms of reference of the centre are to:

  • Support the implementation of the WHO global strategy on human resources for health and regional strategic framework on health workforce development.
  • Strengthen and build capacities of faculty at the regional level in health professions education. 
  • Carry out studies to explore the ways of improving the contribution of WHO collaborating centers in the field of health professions education.