Adapting Premedical Post-Baccalaureate Approaches to Support US-style Medical Education in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

A recent academic paradigm shift in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced US-style medical education to meet the nation’s growing need for medical practitioners. This newly established Doctor of Medicine (MD) program at Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KU) left gaps in student preparedness. To address this problem, KU simultaneously developed a post-bachelor’s premedical program, commonly known as a pre-medicine post-baccalaureate (PMPB) program, that prepared students for entry into the UAE’s first MD program. The authors adapted US-style post-baccalaureate approaches to create KU’s PMPB program that gave students unique opportunities to take coursework that filled gaps in previous knowledge and prepare for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) exam. The 1-year bridging program harnessed academic strengths from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) post-baccalaureate premedical programs network and Kaplan, Inc. Overall, 19 (12 Emirati and 7 international) students achieved admissible MCAT scores (group’s minimum score = 485, average score = 492, and maximum score = 509) and gained research experiences that supported their entry into KU’s medical school. The PMPB program supplied two-thirds of the medical schools’ fall 2019 inaugural class, increased local awareness and interest in medicine and created a novel platform to help students pursue a career in medicine in the UAE.