Visitors from Iraq

On 22 April 2013, the WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education and Training, welcomed a group of senior academics from Iraq to Imperial College London.

Ranging from medicine, pharmacy, nursing and veterinary science, 14 university staff were invited, in conjunction with the Iraqi Cultural Attaché and Ministry of Higher Education for Science and Research (MoHERS), to undertake an intensive four-week training programme. The aim of the programme was to strengthen current skills and teaching methods at an international level. This high-level visit also establishes the opportunity for greater collaboration between MoHERS Iraq and Imperial College.

Sourced in a rich history of medical education, Iraq was once described by the UN and the World Bank as having “first class medical facilities including well-established public health services, hospitals, primary care facilities and ample production and supply of medicine and medical equipment” (2003). Medical education in turn, was well developed with 12 established medical schools. Today there are now 20.

With planned visits to NICE, the BMJ/BMA, the Faculty of Public Health, PBL Learning, the Centre for Clinical Practice, St George’s Hospital and Chelsea Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, this specially tailored training programme was designed to meet their needs and offered the visiting academics a useful insight into standards of good practice to share with academic colleagues back home in Iraq