July 26, 2008, Dubai, United Arab Emirates: The first group of interns from Dubai Medical College for Girls (DMCG), the first medical college in the UAE, commenced their internship Programme at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), India's premier medical college and hospital, as per a cooperation agreement between both institutes. The first group under this programme comprises of 8 clinical graduate students from DMCG who will be interning for one month in various clinical disciplines at AIIMS.

Dubai Medical College, part of the UAE based business conglomerate S.S. Lootah Group and AIIMS will cooperate in the areas of Internship electives, training of DMCG faculty in specialised areas, joint research and Continued Medical Education (CME) programs. DMCG will also invite external examiners and visiting faculty from AIIMS during pre-clinical and clinical phases.

A commemorative event was held at Delhi to mark this milestone where the DMCG interns were honoured for successfully embarking on this landmark programme.  Eng. Yahya Lootah, Vice Chairman - CEO of S.S. Lootah Group and Dr. Ramesh.C.Deka, Dean of AIIMS were among the guests that were present at the event.

Speaking on the occasion, Eng. Yahya Lootah expressed his appreciation for the Dean and faculty of AIIMS for extending their full support to the students of DMCG. He commented,"DMCG's relationship with AIIMS will pave the way for a long-term collaboration that will further enhance the learning avenues for our students. This is also among the important milestones of our presence in India through our wholly owned subsidiary S.S. Lootah Asia. I am confident that this cooperation will usher in a new era of educational excellence by mutually exploring the synergies between both institutes."

Dr. Fouzia Shersad, Director, Institutional Effectiveness Unit, Dubai Medical College and Medical education Advisor to the S.S. Lootah Group commented, "The vast clinical experience that our students are exposed to at AIIMS will add tremendous value to their learning. This collaboration will further help DMCG, which has already created a niche for quality medical education with accreditations from the United States, Britain and World Health Organisation (WHO) to grow from strength to strength and become a benchmark for medical education in the Gulf region."  

Eng. Yahya Lootah further praised the faculty of Dubai Medical College and specially congratulated the Institutional Effectiveness Unit. "Dr. Fouzia has been instrumental in developing progressive programmes at the Dubai Medical College both for students as well as faculty. Dr. Fouzia also played a key role in DMCG being awarded the 'Dubai Quality Appreciation Program'. As a result, we are proud to say that DMCG is today well known for its best practices in the medical curriculum delivery process," he added.

Dr. Fouzia also has to her credit the implementation of EFQM excellence model which makes DMCG the first medical college in the Gulf region to adopt the EFQM model to the education sector. EFQM is originally designed for the trade sector and is a standard adopted by the 'Dubai Quality Award'.

DMCG was started by the S.S. Lootah Group as a not-for-profit venture way back in 1986 and continues to be a pioneer in setting new standards of excellence in healthcare education. The S.S. Lootah Group also established the Dubai Pharmacy College and the Dubai Specialised Medical Centre that form part of its healthcare portfolio in line with the Group's vision to "give back to the community".

-Ends-

About Dubai Medical College for Girls (DMCG)
Dubai Medical College for girls was established in 1986 by philanthropist Haj Saeed Bin Ahmed Al Lootah, Founder and Chairman of the Conglomerate S.S. Lootah Group. The fact that DMCG is solely for girls and that DMCG was started at a time when higher education for girls in the region was lagging far behind than that of the developed countries, makes the college very unique even to this day. The 5 year course is accredited by 'Ministry of Higher Education' and the college is enlisted in the World Health Organisation (WHO) Directory of Medical Schools. 

In addition to Dubai Medical College, the other educational institutions supported by the S.S. Lootah Group are Dubai Pharmacy College, Dubai Medical Treatment and Research centre, Dubai Institute for Environmental Research, Islamic schools, Technical Institutes and Research Centers. They also run orphanages and welfare institutions. 

Media Enquiries
Samyuktha R
PR Consultant
S.S. Lootah International
P.O. Box: 41033,
Dubai,United Arab Emirates 
GSM: + 971508724525
Direct: +971 4 2099327
Fax: +971 4 2971183
email:samy@lootah.com

© Press Release 2008