Harvard Medical International becomes Partners Harvard Medical Internaional

by ArabianBusiness.com staff writer on Tuesday, 10 June 2008

ANDREW A JEON: Expects new affiliation with Partners to broaden PHMI’s capabilities.

Since 2003, when it embarked upon a project focused on the development of Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), Harvard Medical International (HMI) has been a familiar name in Middle East healthcare. HMI led the creation of new governance and regulatory structures to enable DHCC to manage effective growth while ensuring that the providers operating in the healthcare free zone met high standards of practice.

In fostering the development of the Harvard Medical School Dubai Center and the Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research, HMI also helped advance continuing medical education and catalysed new collaborations in the area of biomedical research.

Today the Boston-based organization continues to work closely with faculty, clinicians, and key stakeholders in Dubai, but going forward will do so under an amended name.

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As a result of an an agreement reached between Harvard University and Partners HealthCare System, HMI has become Partners Harvard Medical International (PHMI).

The organisation was founded in 1994 as a self-supporting subsidiary of Harvard Medical School (HMS), with the mission to extend internationally the School's tradition of improving the quality of healthcare through excellence in clinical medicine, medical education and biomedical research. Through numerous collaborations with healthcare delivery organisations, academic medical institutions and other groups, they have played a major role in the development of health and education infrastructure globally.

Through more than 50 programs developed in over 40 countries, they have provided training and education for hundreds of healthcare professionals, leaders, and students around the world. Collaborations based on clinical and administrative quality improvement have led to regional, national, and international recognition for HMI and its client institutions.

The leadership at PHMI emphasised that the firm will honoor all obligations to existing HMI clients, and retain its current staff to ensure that ongoing projects benefit from a continuity of management and the expanded capabilities of the new arrangement. PHMI will continue to play a major role, in collaboration with Tatweer, in the development of Dubai Healthcare City and the key components of the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Academic Medical Center, including the new University Hospital.

In the past year, PHMI has also undertaken new medical school development projects in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Several other projects in the Gulf are in the works.

As PHMI, the organisation will be under the oversight of Partners HealthCare System, a major academic healthcare network based in Boston that was founded by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, two of the flagship teaching affilitates of Harvard Medical School. PHMI will also have a governance structure that includes Board representation from Harvard University and Harvard Medical School. In addition to drawing on the tremendous knowledge resources present at the Partners-affiliated hospitals, PHMI will continue to work with top faculty from across Harvard University, including the Medical School and all of its teaching institutions.

The move to Partners comes as the result of discussions between Partners and Harvard about the best positioning of the consulting group for the future. Over the course of its 14-year history, the HMI portfolio has expanded beyond the organisation's original charter to extend the Medical School's tradition of academic excellence to include a wide array of service capabilities. PHMI's leadership believes that being part of a major health network like Partners HealthCare will create new opportunities for the organisation and allow it to broaden its work scope and meet the demands of healthcare institutions in the rapidly growing Gulf region and other emerging economic regions.

"HMI's work since its inception has been possible in large part due to the unwavering support from the leadership of Harvard Medical School, as well as the tremendous intellectual resources of its faculty," said Andrew A Jeon, MD, MBA, president and chief executive officer of PHMI. "We anticipate that in our new affiliation with Partners, we will be able to expand our mission to increase access to quality healthcare in countries across the world, while maintaining a vital academic partnership with the Medical School and its affiliated institutions."

Dr. Jeon added that going forward, PHMI would be able to provide to clients a more comprehensive range of academic and clinical services, including facilities management, consulting services, and training of allied healthcare professionals.

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