17 May 2010

A new partnership between The University of Queensland’s School of Medicine and a top United States health organisation will produce better doctors with a global medical education.

The UQ School of Medicine has partnered with the Ochsner Health System to add the new link in an agreement that will enable UQ students to gain experience in US hospitals.

According to Head of the School of Medicine, Professor David Wilkinson, the international experience will increase the quality of doctors graduating from the University.

“To create exceptional doctors it is imperative our students receive medical education of the highest quality and we have aligned ourselves with one of the top hospitals in the US to do just that,” Professor Wilkinson said.

“This partnership will create a doctor trained both in Australia and the US, ready to work in either environment.

"Genuinely transnational global medical education is surely the way of the future with students from different settings and cultures mixing and learning together, before further training and learning in a variety of settings."

The Ochsner Health System in New Orleans is a highly rated non-profit, academic, multi-specialty, healthcare delivery system.

It was recently admitted to the list of America’s Top 100 hospitals, in the category ‘major teaching hospitals’ by The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals and placed within HealthGrades top 5% for Clinical Excellence, who designated it as a HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence.

Since 2009, 34 medical students from UQ have travelled to Ochsner to complete part of their medical training. Feedback has very positive, with students highly rating the clinical experience and teaching.

This partnership has also seen 50 US-citizen begin their medical studies at UQ. These students will complete the first two years of their degree at the Universities campus in Brisbane and the final two years, the hospital training years, in New Orleans at the Ochsner Clinical School.

The School of Medicine at UQ is the largest medical school in Australia, with over 1700 enrolled medical students, and now it is truly ‘Australia’s Global Medical School’.

Media: Marlene McKendry 0401 996 847