PURPOSE: College of Medicine, Gulf Medical University, United Arab Emirates, underwent a major curriculum change from a discipline-based to an organ system-based integrated curriculum. However, it was not known how the faculty perceived the changes in the educational environment as experienced by the students. In this context, we aimed to compare the faculty perceptions of the student experiences in the discipline-based curriculum with those in the organ system-based integrated curriculum. METHODS: The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire was modified to assess faculty perceptions of the student experiences, pilot-tested, and administered to all faculty members (n=28) involved in the discipline-based curriculum (FDC) in January 2009. In the subsequent year, data were collected from the same faculty involved in the new integrated curriculum (FIC). Collected data were transferred to Predictive Analytics Software version 18. Total, domain, and individual statement scores were assessed with the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Percentage agreement, disagreement, and uncertainty were assessed by the McNemar's test for proportion. RESULTS: The mean total DREEM score was significantly higher (P<0.001) for FIC (139/200) as compared to FDC (119/200). The FIC perceived significantly more positive student experiences with the educational environment as indicated by the domain scores and statement scores. The differences in proportions of agreement between FIC and FDC also reinforced that the FIC perceived more positive student experiences with the educational environment. CONCLUSION: The study showed that the faculty perceived the organ system-based integrated curriculum as providing a better educational environment for the students than the discipline based curriculum.
Curriculum ; Education ; Education, Medical, Undergraduate ; Faculty, Medical ; Humans ; Uncertainty ; United Arab Emirates ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate medical service quality, satisfaction and to examine factors influencing hospital revisit intention of the United Arab Emirates government sponsored patients in Korea. METHODS: A total of 152 UAE government sponsored patients who visited Korean hospitals participated in the questionnaire survey from August to November 2016. Stepwise multiple regression was used to identify the factors that affected the revisit intention of the participants. RESULTS: The mean scores of medical service quality, satisfaction, and revisit intention were 5.72 out of 7, 88.88 out of 100, 4.59 out of 5, respectively. Medical service quality and satisfaction, Medical service quality and revisit intention, satisfaction and revisit intention were positively correlated. Medical service of physician, visiting routes and responsiveness of medical service quality explained about 23.8% of revisit intention. CONCLUSIONS: There are needs for physicians to communicate with patients while ensuring sufficient consultation time based on excellent medical skills and nurses to respond immediately for the patients' needs through an empathic encounter in order to improve medical service quality and patient satisfaction so that to increase the revisit intention of the United Arab Emirates government sponsored patients. Further, it is necessary for the hospitals to have support plans for providing country specialized services in consideration of the UAE culture to ensure that physicians' and nurses' competencies are not undervalued by non-medical service elements such as interpreters and meals.
Health Services ; Humans ; Intention* ; Korea ; Meals ; Patient Satisfaction ; Personal Satisfaction ; United Arab Emirates*

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has experienced tremendous economic and industrial growth in the petroleum, airline, maritime and construction sectors, especially since the discovery of oil reserves. Mass recruitment of low skilled or unskilled laborers from less-developed countries has been utilized to satisfy the manpower demands of these fast paced industrial developments. Such workforce recruitment has created an unusual populace demographic, with the total UAE population estimated at 8.3 million, composed of 950,000 Emiratis, with the remainder being multinational expatriate workers, with varying educational qualifications, work experience, religious beliefs, cultural practices, and native languages. These unique characteristics pose a challenge for health and safety professionals tasked with ensuring the UAE workforce adheres to specific occupational health and safety procedures. The paper discusses two case studies that employ a novel multimedia approach to raising health and safety awareness among a multinational workforce.
Accidents, Occupational ; Developing Countries ; Humans ; Multimedia ; Occupational Health ; Occupational Injuries ; Petroleum ; Religion ; Safety Management ; Transients and Migrants ; United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has experienced tremendous economic and industrial growth in the petroleum, airline, maritime and construction sectors, especially since the discovery of oil reserves. Mass recruitment of low skilled or unskilled laborers from less-developed countries has been utilized to satisfy the manpower demands of these fast paced industrial developments. Such workforce recruitment has created an unusual populace demographic, with the total UAE population estimated at 8.3 million, composed of 950,000 Emiratis, with the remainder being multinational expatriate workers, with varying educational qualifications, work experience, religious beliefs, cultural practices, and native languages. These unique characteristics pose a challenge for health and safety professionals tasked with ensuring the UAE workforce adheres to specific occupational health and safety procedures. The paper discusses two case studies that employ a novel multimedia approach to raising health and safety awareness among a multinational workforce.
Accidents, Occupational ; Developing Countries ; Humans ; Multimedia ; Occupational Health ; Occupational Injuries ; Petroleum ; Religion ; Safety Management ; Transients and Migrants ; United Arab Emirates

New epidemics of infectious diseases often involve health care workers. In this short communication we present a case report of a health care professional who became the first case of influenza H1N1 virus to be notified in the United Arab Emirates. There are several issues related to workplace considerations and general public health, including preventive measures, the need for isolation of the patient, dealing with contacts, return to work, and communication with the workforce.
Communicable Diseases ; Delivery of Health Care ; Disease Notification ; Humans ; Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype ; Influenza, Human ; Occupational Health ; Public Health ; Return to Work ; United Arab Emirates

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (DM), particularly type-2 is a major public health concern worldwide. Not much information is available with regard to the incidence of DM in United Arab Emirates (UAE). This study aimed at determining the incidence rate of diabetes mellitus among Emirati population in Ajman, UAE. This is a retrospective cohort study. METHODS: This study was conducted in all primary health care centers and Shaikh Khalifa and GMC Hospitals, Ajman, UAE where the Emirati population primarily go for diagnosis and treatment. The incident cases of diabetes mellitus were collected during the period 2010 January to December. RESULTS: A total of 158 cases newly detected in 2010, 54 were among non-Emiratis and one was type-1 diabetes. Eliminating these, the remaining 101 were included in the analysis. The age of the patients ranged from 23 years to 78 years; 35 (34.7%) males and 66 (65.3%) were females. The overall incidence observed was 4.8/1,000 person-years (PY) with a female predominance of 6.3/1,000 PY against incidence among males of 3.3/1,000 PY. With regard to age specific incidence rate among males, it increases with age till 60 years and then showed a decreasing trend. Among females also the same trend was observed but not as similar to males. CONCLUSION: The highest incidence rate was observed in the 55-59 age group among males, 23.4/1,000 PY and females, 32.4/1,000 PY. Among males the incidence rate was much less compared to females in-the age groups older than 59 years.
Cohort Studies ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2* ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Male ; Primary Health Care ; Public Health ; Retrospective Studies ; United Arab Emirates*

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is an emerging zoonosis caused by the novel MERS corona virus isolated in 2012. Most MERS cases have been reported from Arab countries of the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan. There have been a few imported cases in many countries, but the exception is Korea, which reported 186 confirmed cases originating from one imported case in a two-month outbreak in 2015. There are many lessons to be learned from the MERS outbreak in Korea, among them, management of contacts. The definition of "close contact" used by the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) for MERS response was not clear and not compatible with the definition of the World Health Organization. This incorrect definition allowed the KCDC make serious mistakes in contact tracing and management in the early epidemic stage of MERS. After the rapid expansion of the outbreak, the KCDC redefined a "close contact" according to the definition of the US CDC. The total number of close contacts was 16,693 in this outbreak, and they were all forced to conduct a self-quarantine for 14 days after the last contact with a MERS patient. It was not clear whether self-quarantine of close contacts was effective to control the outbreak. Given the lack of prepared guidelines or a social support system for them, these measures for the massive number of asymptomatic contacts caused a great deal of confusion in the field A clear response guideline is needed for contact management based on robust evidence from this MERS epidemic in Korea.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Contact Tracing ; Coronavirus Infections ; Humans ; Jordan ; Korea ; Middle East* ; Qatar ; Saudi Arabia ; United Arab Emirates ; World Health Organization

OBJECTIVES: This study is to scrutinize the website of Seoul National University Hospital in Korea, Clinique Valmont in Switzerland, Medical Center of the University of Munich in Germany, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to suggest successful communication factors to the medical service providers who deal with Middle Eastern patients. METHODS: Using content analysis and in-depth interviews, this research examines four hospitals commonly visited by Middle East patients. The four hospitals approaches to implementing interactive e-health tools on their web sites are reviewed. Four hospitals selection criterion was process by focus group interview of government officials in UAE health sectors. RESULTS: The way of providing medical information differed by hospitals that used e-health tools. The analysis of each website shows a different way providing medical information, services and education. There are important differences among hospitals. These include decision-making, planning processes and outcomes of implementing e-health tools online, as well as potential obstacles to such implementation. Thus, hospitals can learn and design effective interactive tools by applying e-health tools on their websites. CONCLUSIONS: Each website showed different interactive tools such as traditional functional tools, core e-business tools, patient support tools, visitor related tools, emerging functional tools. By applying the interactive e-health tools sets an objective view for e-health strategy and vision for the hospitals conveying information through the website. According to the type of hospitals and its location different methods of strategy should be applied. Targeting not only the patients but also the general website users will eventually improve health information accessibility.
Education ; Focus Groups ; Germany ; Health Impact Assessment ; Humans ; Korea ; Middle East ; Occupational Groups ; Patient Participation ; Seoul ; Switzerland ; Telemedicine ; United Arab Emirates*

Since April 2012, more than 1,600 laboratory-confirmed human infections with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) have been reported, occurring primarily in countries in the Arabian Peninsula; the majority in Saudi Arabia. The MERS outbreak in Korea, which began in May 2015 through the importation of a single case who had recently traveled to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. As of November 28th, 186 secondary and tertiary cases had been reported; 38 deaths, mainly associated with underlying chronic illnesses, were reported. One case was exported to China and has been recorded as the first MERS case in China. Thirty-seven confirmed cases were associated with the index case, who was hospitalized from May 15 to May 17. Emergency room at one of the nation's largest hospitals had been affected by hospital-to-hospital and intra-hospital transmissions of MERS-CoV, resulting in an outbreak of 90 infected patients. The vast majority of 186 confirmed cases are linked to a single transmission chain associated with health facilities. The median age of patients is 55 years, with a range of 16 to 87 years. The majority (61%) of patients are men. Twenty-five (14%) of the cases involve healthcare workers. The overall median incubation period was six days, but it was four days for secondary cases and six days for tertiary cases. There has been no evidence of airborne transmission and sustained human-to-human transmission in communities. Intensified public health measures, including contact tracing, quarantine and isolation of all contacts and suspected cases, and infection prevention and control have brought the MERSCoV under control in Korea. Since 4 July no new cases have been reported.
Bahrain ; China ; Chronic Disease ; Contact Tracing ; Coronavirus ; Delivery of Health Care ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Epidemiology ; Health Facilities ; Humans ; Korea* ; Male ; Middle East* ; Public Health ; Qatar ; Quarantine ; Saudi Arabia ; United Arab Emirates

OBJECTIVES: Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare providers related to occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens were assessed in a tertiary-care hospital in Middle East. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was undertaken using a self-administered questionnaire based on 3 paired (infectivity known vs. not known-suspected) case studies. Only 17 out of 230 respondents had an exposure in the 12 months prior to the survey and of these, only 2 had complied fully with the hospital's exposure reporting policy. RESULTS: In the paired case studies, the theoretical responses of participating health professionals showed a greater preference for initiating self-directed treatment with antivirals or immunisation rather than complying with the hospital protocol, when the patient was known to be infected. The differences in practice when exposed to a patient with suspected blood pathogens compared to patient known to be infected was statistically significant (p < 0.001) in all 3 paired cases. Failure to test an infected patient's blood meant that an adequate risk assessment and appropriate secondary prevention could not be performed, and reflected the unwillingness to report the occupational exposure. CONCLUSION: Therefore, the study demonstrated that healthcare providers opted to treat themselves when exposed to patient with infectious disease, rather than comply with the hospital reporting and assessment protocol.
Antiviral Agents ; Blood-Borne Pathogens ; Body Fluids ; Communicable Diseases ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Delivery of Health Care ; Health Occupations ; Health Personnel ; Humans ; Occupational Exposure ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Risk Assessment ; Secondary Prevention ; United Arab Emirates