Weill Cornell offers warm welcome to Malaysian student

Faghira Afrina binti Mat Tarmizi says that perhaps the best thing about her recent visit to Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) was the personal care doctors delivered -- not just to patients, but to her as well.

“In fact, it was one of the most wonderful experiences," she said. "Because it’s specialized, the doctors have more time with patients, and perhaps because of this they also had more time for me, so I found the teaching was very personal, and that’s something I don’t get in Malaysia as there are so many other students."

Faghira, a student in the final year of her medical program at Penang Medical College in Malaysia, was the month-long guest of WCM-Q as part of the global education exchange in medicine and the health professionals (GEMx) program. She worked at health care centers in Doha, primarily at the Aspetar Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Hospital.
 
"I lived in Doha previously, and I have attended a summer enrichment program at WCM-Q,” Faghira said. “I was interested in taking sports medicine or orthopedic electives or something that combined the two, and I saw that WCM-Q offered sports medicine. I contacted my college who told me to contact GEMx, and everything went from there.”
 
Faghira noted that her routine in Doha was similar to what she does in Malaysia, except that the majority of the system in Doha was computerized. This allowed her to spend less time on paperwork and more with patients.
 
"Aspetar has been the highlight of the visit, though,” Afrina said.