Healthcare Professionals Across Qatar Complete WCM-Q Research Training Sessions

Physicians, nurses, other healthcare professionals and academicians working in Qatar completed research training sessions offered by the Division of Continuing Professional Education (CPD) at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) recently. 

The latest sessions offered by WCM-Q included a comprehensive five-day Introduction to Qualitative Research course directed by biomedical statistics experts Dr. Ziyad Mahfoud, Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences, and guest expert Dr. Gladys Honein-AbouHaidar, Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB). The workshop introduced participants to the design and implementation of qualitative research and offered guidance on when to use qualitative research, which methodology to use, how to conduct the research, how to present results, and how to increase the trustworthiness of qualitative research studies. The course also gave participants a firm grounding in the scientific method and an understanding of how to integrate scientific rigor and ethics in qualitative research.

In a separate event, entitled Certificate in the Analysis of Medical Data: Advanced Applied Biostatistics for Health Care Professionals, Dr. Mahfoud demonstrated to participants how to use a number of key analytical methods to help them understand the data they collect for their research. This included instruction on how to generate a multiple linear regression and a multiple logistic regression, how to analyze data from a one-way ‘analysis of variance’ (ANOVA), and how to analyze data using nonparametric statistics, among other foundational skills. 

Dr. Mahfoud said: “It does not take long for healthcare professionals to gain a firm grounding in these technical skills, but once they have mastered them it opens up a whole new world of research for them. These newly gained expertise enable the participants to draw meaningful conclusions from the data they collect through their clinical work or through other avenues, as well as boosting their careers and contributing to biomedical research in Qatar and the wider region.”

Both of the events were accredited locally by the Ministry of Public Health’s Department of Healthcare Professions – Accreditation Section and internationally by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME).