Seminar series offers students guidance on career paths

Doha, Qatar: Health professionals shared their career journeys with foundation and pre-medical students at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) during the fall edition of the college’s Medical Career Seminar series.

The series featured presentations and talks from dean and professor of psychiatry and population health sciences at WCM-Q, Dr. Javaid Sheikh and six distinguished WCM-Q alumni. Each seminar provided valuable insights into each speaker’s career and area of speciality, followed by a Q&A session.

This year, an additional interactive component was introduced, with guest speakers including a brief “mystery” medical case in their sessions to encourage students to think, diagnose, and engage as if they were the treating physicians.

Dr. Sheikh spoke about his personal and professional journey and the impact of AI on medical practice. “As future physician-scientists, it is essential for our students to start exploring their professional interests early in their educational journey. With AI increasingly becoming a standard component of medical education and practice, the field of medicine is evolving in unprecedented ways. These are very exciting times for future medical professionals,” Dr. Sheikh said.

Alumni speakers included Dr. Tania Jaber (Class of 2011), an endocrinologist at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC); Dr. Sulaiman Al Shakhs (Class of 2021), a psychiatrist at HMC and a clinical associate of psychiatry at WCM-Q; Dr. Salah Majid Mahmoud (Class of 2023), an otolaryngology and head and neck surgery resident at HMC; Dr. Tala Abu Samaan (Class of 2024), an internal medicine resident at Tufts Medical Centre in the US; and Dr. Mohamed Al-Hajjaji (Class of 2016), an associate programme director for the Paediatric Residency Programme and the Paediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship Programme at Sidra Medicine.

To ensure alumni living abroad also had the opportunity to share their experiences with WCM-Q students, a live online session was held with alumna guest speaker Dr. Nour Barakat (Class of 2014), an ophthalmologist specialising in cornea and oculoplasty who currently practices in Australia.

Associate professor of physics and senior associate dean for pre-medical education and Education City collaborative curricular affairs,  Dr. Marco Ameduri said, “We are proud of our distinguished alumni, who have chosen to pursue diverse training and career opportunities, both here in Qatar and abroad. Their stories offer current students valuable insights into the varying possibilities available to them in the medical field.”

Associate dean for foundation, student outreach and educational development programmes, Dr. Rachid Bendriss added, “It is extremely valuable for WCM-Q students to hear directly from experienced medical experts about the journeys that have helped shape them into the health professionals they are today. Their personal experiences will ultimately encourage students to start considering their own interests and future career paths.”

Members of relevant student interest groups at WCM-Q were invited to attend the seminars, ensuring that students with an interest in a specific field could hear directly from practicing physicians, ask informed questions and validate their own interest early on. WCM-Q was also pleased to welcome students from the Academic Bridge Programme (ABP) – Qatar Foundation, as attendees at a number of career seminars.