Public Health Activities in Qatar
Department faculty are excited to be involved in educational and research activities at the branch of the Medical College in Doha, in the Middle Eastern state of Qatar.
Madelon L. Finkel, Ph.D., Professor of Clinical Public Health, helped establish the required Public Health courses taught to medical students at the Qatar campus of Weill Cornell Medical College. She, along with many other faculty members of the Department of Public Health based in New York, teach in the Qatar curriculum, both in person and through teleconferencing..
Several faculty members of the Department of Public Health—Pablo Rodríguez del Pozo, M.D., J.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Ravinder Mamtani, M.B.B.S., M.D., M.Sc., Professor of Clinical Public Health; Laith J. Abu-Raddad, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Health, and Abdulbari Bener, Ph.D., Research Professor of Public Health—are based in Qatar.
Dr. Rodríguez del Pozo represents the Division of Medical Ethics in Qatar and in consultation with colleagues in New York, directs the Medical Ethics curriculum. In designing the curriculum, he faces the unique challenge of adapting the American version of its Medical Ethics curriculum to a predominantly Middle Eastern, and mostly Islamic, student body. With Joseph J. Fins, M.D., F.A.C.P., Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics, he has created and implemented a course called Medical Ethics: An Introduction to Medical Humanities for the premedical students at the College. Through discussions and readings of classic and contemporary works, the course exposes students to some of the humanistic issues they will face as doctors and encourages them to develop their own set of values according to their individual cultures and traditions. A course in palliative care for fourth-year medical students is currently also being developed. More on the Medical Ethics curriculum in Qatar.
Dr. Mamtani teaches Public Health and Preventive Medicine to premedical and medical students, as well as conducts and participates in a variety of research studies. In 2010 he was appointed Associate Dean for Global and Public Health at Weill Cornell Medical College/Qatar. Since spring 2009, he has also served as the Acting Associate Dean for Admissions and Student Affairs (ASA) at WCMC-Q.
Dr. Abu-Raddad's research focuses on the epidemiological factors and population processes shaping infectious disease spread, using analytical and computational approaches. He currently has a grant for more than $1 million from the Qatar National Research Fund to study the role of biological co-factors in HIV epidemiology and the impact of biomedical HIV prevention interventions.
Dr. Bener is based at the Hamad Medical Corporation, where is is Director of the Medical Statistics & Epidemiology Department.
A team of faculty members from the Department of Public Health and from the Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha are conducting a study of the effects of diabetes in Qatar. Investigators include Alvin I. Mushlin, M.D., Sc.M., Professor and Chairman, Lisa M. Kern, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor, and Dr. Mamtani. The researchers are evaluating risk factors, treatment patterns, and outcomes for people affected by the disease. They are also examining the impact of diabetes and other metabolic syndrome risk factors on cardiovascular disease and hospital care, as well as the economic effects of the disease. More on the Qatar diabetes project.
Another current collaborative project, funded by the Qatar National Research Fund, is a study of women’s health in Qatar. The study, which is being led by Linda Gerber, PhD, Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology in Medicine, and Mohamud Verjee, MBChB, WCMC/Q, is examining the physical, biological, psychological and social changes in women in their middle years. Co-Investigators include Madhuvanti Murphy, DrPH, Assistant Professor of Public Health, Heejung Bang, PhD, Associate Professor of Biostatistics in Public Health, Dr. Mamtani, and Dr. Bener. The goal of the research is to help scientists, health care providers and women learn how mid-life experiences affect health and quality of life during aging.
