Dr. Ashraf Mohamed El Ghul, is the designated institutional official (DIO) and Internal Medicine Residency Program Director at Mafraq Hospital in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). His institution’s and program’s experience with ACGME International brought him to the 2019 ACGME Annual Educational Conference and we asked him to share his experience.
Q: Tell us a little about your path in medicine and how you got here.
A: Since medical school, I wanted to be a clinician educator. I always wanted to be part of teaching programs. I completed medical school in Tripoli, Libya and an internal medicine residency in the US. I am a proud general internal medicine physician. I worked as a hospitalist in Charleston, West Virginia, and was appointed Clinical Assistant Professor at West Virginia University. I moved later to the UAE and was appointed as the Internal Medicine Residency Program Director at Mafraq Hospital in December 2011. I was appointed as DIO in December 2015.
Q: What made you want to come to the Annual Educational Conference this year?
A: I am a firm believer in back to basics and back to the bedside. [Learning about and discussing] passionate, patient-centered care and rediscovering the meaning of medicine was my motivation to attend.
Q: What did you expect from the ACGME Annual Educational Conference? What were you looking forward to, hoping to get out of coming?
A: I expected new transformational events. This has made me a better clinician educator over time.
Q: What was your experience like once at the conference?
A: Great! It made you feel that you are part of the big GME family.
Q: Which session(s) had the biggest impact? Why?
A: Successful Practices for Engaging Residents and Fellows in Patient Safety—this session made engaging residents in patient safety and quality simple and easy.
Q: What was your greatest takeaway? What was the biggest surprise?
A: It must be the chat between Dr.Nasca and Dr.Murthy! And I was surprised with the rising number of attendees from all over the world.
Q: Will you come again? Why/Why not?
A: Yes. You always learn something new as the theme changes annually and it gets more exciting over the years.
Q: The theme of this year’s conference was “Engaging Each Other: Rediscovering Meaning in Medicine.” Where do you find your personal meaning and joy in work?
A: Having fun with patients and residents during teaching rounds. The residents learn to keep their patients involved in decision-making and establish great rapport with them.
Q: Anything else you’d like to share about your Annual Educational Conference experience or about yourself?
A: I have to say again it is the feeling that we are all together as a GME family and we all have the same mission, which is to graduate future health care professionals in order to provide effective patient care in the US and the world.