WAM Abu Dhabi, Jun 02nd, 2012 (WAM) -- The Health Authority - Abu Dhabi (HAAD), the regulatory body of the health care sector in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, signed today a Memorandum of Understanding with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education International (ACGME-I), the international accrediting body of international medical residency and fellowship programs.

The MoU aims to improve the quality of graduate medical education programs for physicians provided in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi through HAAD's regulatory endorsement thereby incentivizing ACGME-I accreditation for all medical residency and fellowship programs offered in Abu Dhabi. The MoU identifies multiple areas of collaboration aimed not only to improve educational outcomes, but also to address issues of sustainability of health services and workforce capacity planning.

The agreements were signed by Zaid Al Siksek, CEO of HAAD and John Nylen, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, ACGME-I in the presence of Dr. Ali Obaid Al Ali, Director of Health Regulation at HAAD. A number of National educational stakeholders from UAE Ministry of Health, HAAD, Dubai Health Authority (DHA), Zayed Military Hospital, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of UAE University, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA), Mubadala were also in attendance.

Commenting on the signing, Dr. Ali Obaid Al Ali, Director of Health Regulation said: "The signing of today's MoU marks the Health Authority Abu Dhabi as one of the first regulatory authorities in the region to embark on a partnership with the ACGME-I and facilitates the goal of having the UAE as one of the first countries in the region to achieve ACGME-I accreditation of its residency training programs. Attainment of ACGME-I accreditation is a significant component of the HAAD's strategic aims in the improvement of the medical education programs to ensure a highly skilled and competent healthcare work force".

In previous visits of ACGME delegates to Abu Dhabi, local residency training programs had demonstrated favourable academic attributes likely to contribute to successful attainment of ACGME accreditation in the future.

John Nylen, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, ACGME-I, said: "The MoU marks the first step towards multiple initiatives between the Health Authority Abu Dhabi and the ACGME-I.

Dr. Hatem Al Ameri, Manager, Health Professional Licensing Dept, HAAD said: "Multiple initiatives aimed at raising the number of Emirati health professionals continue to be incorporated in the various processes of health professional licensure and regulations, however, our partnership with the ACGME-I today specifically ensures that we continue to produce high quality professionals with the requisite skills and competence to serve our community".

"Over the past 2 years, our continuous dialogue with the ACGME has focused on providing regulatory support of this world renowned accreditation model soon to be available to our physician educators and training institutions in Abu Dhabi, who have shown remarkable commitment to the mission of improving post graduate education throughout the years", Dr. Hatem added.

WAM/AB