Lehman visits Qatar as first students enter med school

Photos courtesy of Martin Marion Left to right: Sheikh Hamad Bin Jabor Al-Thani (vice chairman of Hamad Medical Corp.'s board of directors); H.E. Turki Al-Khater (managing director of Hamad); Latifa Al-Houty (chair of Hamad's board); Steven J. Corwin (senior vice president and chief medical officer of New York-Presbyterian Hospital); and Antonio M. Gotto Jr. (provost for medical affairs and the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College, N.Y.). The group gathered Oct. 11 for the signing of an affiliation agreement at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. The agreement formalizes the three-way partnership initiated last spring when a memorandum of understanding was signed.

Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman, right, chats with reporters, from left, Omar Al-Suhail (Qatar News Agency), Sarah Boerners and Sarah Verstraete (both New York Daily News) in Qatar. Photo courtesy of Martin Marion

Cornell President Jeffrey S. Lehman traveled to Doha in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar two weeks ago to witness the Oct. 11 signing ceremony formalizing the three-way affiliation that created the Weill Cornell Medical College-Qatar (WCMC-Q). The partners are Weill Cornell Medical College, New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) and Hamad Medical Corp. (HMC).

The agreement that formally opens the newest Cornell campus, and the first outside the United States, follows a memorandum of understanding that took effect last spring. The affiliation allows each party to remain an independent entity. HMC will make its hospitals and primary health care centers available as clinical education training sites for Weill Cornell Medical College-Qatar students. There also will be opportunities for training and educational exchange between personnel of the three institutions, including clinicians, researchers and students.

During his visit, Lehman met journalists from news agencies, the local English- and Arabic-language dailies and the New York Daily News and discussed the emergence of "the transnational university" and the latest developments at WCMC-Q. Lehman spoke about his regular visits to WCMC-Q, his meetings with the students and the developing links between Cornellians on the three campuses in Ithaca, New York City and Doha.

Lehman outlined the importance to Cornell of building partnerships of different kinds across the world: "We are looking for world-class partners -- the very finest institutions whom we look to as colleagues and peers," he said.

Describing Qatar's fast-growing Education City as "extraordinarily visionary," Lehman said that its success has become widely recognized and admired.

Asked about standards at WCMC-Q, Lehman noted that the selection process is extremely painstaking. "This is the only example of an American university providing an M.D. outside the U.S., and it's very important to us that the future doctors be the finest doctors in the world. So we are very careful," he explained.

Standards are extremely high, he added. "We have been very proud of the quality of the students that we have admitted here; they have been absolutely world-class. And they do work very hard to make sure that they realize their potential."

Lehman also witnessed WCMC-Q's inaugural "white coats" ceremony for the first group of students to enter WCMC-Q's four-year degree course. The Class of 2008 has 16 students.