Providing world-class health care is one of the six pillars of the UAE’s national agenda, and the government is making continuous efforts to enhance the welfare and health care for both citizens and residents. In this context, the National Institute for Health Specialties NIHS was established by Cabinet Resolution No. (28) of 2014 as a national institution tasked with leading and organizing the professional development of the health workforce with a particular focus on specialized training.
The National Institute for Health Specialties is based at United Arab Emirates University, which is the first national higher education institution in the country. The NIHS vision is based on developing a highly qualified health workforce capable of supporting the health system and promoting health and quality of life. It also aims to achieve development of the health sector, by improving the scientific and professional level of physicians and health professions in various specialties, raising awareness of higher medical education, training programs and organizing specialized training to enhance the quality of clinical education.
Dr. Mohammed Al Houqani, Secretary General of the National Institute of Health Specialties, explained, “The NIHS objectives are based on development of the health sector, improving the scientific level and health professions, enhancing the quality of higher medical education and specialized training programs in terms of organizing specialized training and ensuring the quality of clinical education. The NIHS works on setting standards for specialized health programs, which are among the NIHS tasks, in addition to evaluating health institutions for the purposes of specialized training and institutional and program accreditation.
He pointed out that one of the most prominent tasks and competencies of the NIHS is to approve the curricula prepared for specialized training, approve residency programs, and conduct specialized professional exams, in addition to issuing certificates for higher health specialties (residency and fellowship). It also approves continuing medical education standards, continuing professional development programs in health specialties, as well as developing admission criteria, conducting entrance exams for trainees and residents in training programs, and establishing a national registry for all medical specialties and qualifications in the country.
The NIHS organizational structure includes: Board of Directors, General Secretariat, Advisory Committee, Council of Scientific Affairs, and the scientific committees. The NIHS Board of Directors is chaired by the Minister of Education, and consists of members representing a number of government agencies in the health, educational and academic sectors in the country.
According to the statistics and figures, Dr. Al Houqani indicated that the NIHS performance is according to four main themes of the strategy: governance, specialized programs, accreditation, and evaluation. For governance at the level of policies and regulations, 12 documents of policies and regulations in the areas of training and evaluation were developed. At the level of activating local and international partnerships, many local partnerships were concluded with health and educational authorities within the country, and 3 regional and international partnerships were concluded with the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and a partnership with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education ACGME. The NIHS has obtained the accreditation of the health qualification awarding body.
For the specialized programs, 37 specialized scientific committees have been developed so far (Internal Medicine, ENT, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, General Surgery, Anesthesia, Dermatology, Gastroenterology, Neurology, Ophthalmology, Radiology, Rheumatology ( Adult & Pediatic), Urology, Family Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Cardiology, Clinical Genetics, Intensive Care Unit, Neonatology, Nephrology, Oncology, Hematology, Pediatric Hemong, Child Psychiatry, Infectious Disease, Clinical Pharmacy, Endodontics, Orthodontics, Pediatric dentistry, Periodontology, Prosthodontics, Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics, Pulmonology, Medical Internship, Nursing & Midwifery) and the standards of accreditation for the internship for medicine and dentistry have also been developed, and 309 consultants have been included in the membership of the scientific committees, and 30 of the standards for specialized programs have been approved by the Council of Scientific Affairs until Now, 27 awareness-raising workshops on institutional and program national standards have been conducted.
For the accreditation, 100 assessors have been registered in the NIHS registration so far, and a number of workshops have been conducted to develop and qualify accreditation assessors, and 9 evaluation visits to health institutions have been carried out and approved, following that the program accreditation processes have been launched and the number of applications for program accreditation has reached 19 programs, and 9 program evaluation visits have been carried out so far.
Finally, the NIHS achievements in the field of assessment, the NIHS continues to make the Emirates Medical Residency Entrance Examination (EMREE), which is conducted from December to March every year.. Also, three e-programs were conducted in cooperation with the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, such as the Certified Question Writer Program and the Certified Assessor Program, and 130 experts have been registered in these programs so far.
The NIHS works according to a roadmap in granting institutional accreditation to health institutions, and it has adopted several stages to issue UAE Board certificates, starting from the institutional accreditation stage, which started at the beginning of this year 2022, to the program accreditation stage in October of the same year, followed by work on preparing for the registration of trainees in December 2022, and preparing the exams for June of the next year 2023, leading to the conduct of written and clinical exams and the issuance of Emirates Board certificates.
The NIHS works on setting standards for specialized health programs, internship, and accrediting health institutions for the purposes of specialized training, proposing general plans for preparing and developing the health workforce in cooperation with the concerned health authorities, and evaluating health care institutions established for the purposes of specialized training and higher medical education in the country.
The NIHS also works on enhancing the quality of specialized medical training and education and graduate studies by accrediting hospitals and medical centers, and accrediting specialized programs, in addition to recognizing hospitals and medical centers after being evaluated according to the approved criteria for participation in specialized training programs, and adopting curricula prepared for specialized training in the country.
Dr. Al Houqani stressed during the meeting that the standards and criteria adopted by the NIHS in developing specialized programs are based on determining the need for health care in the country, providing training centers and sites, and trainers, and matching with the planned numbers of trainees, as well as setting the general perception of the specialized program in terms of duration, curricula, and evaluation methods. In addition to benchmarking with international experiences in specialization and consistency with the licensing health professionals in the country.
Dr. Al Houqani indicated that the specializations of the National Institute for Health Specialties, for which scientific committees were formed, included various medical specialties, pharmacy and dentistry.
In addition to setting general rules for specialized training programs, including training physicians in coordination with medical and health sciences colleges, encouraging scientific research and publishing scientific articles in the field of health professional education and specialized medical education in relevant journals and periodicals, and organizing scientific conferences and educational seminars on medical education, and establishing a national registry for all medical specialties and qualifications within the country.
Dr. Mohammed Al Houqani stressed that the future is based on the NIHS vision to expand specialized health programs according to the needs of the country and in consultation with the concerned health authorities to include nursing and allied health specialties, and to strengthen governance, accreditation and evaluation systems in order to ensure the highest quality standards for specialization programs in the country through policies, standards and procedures. It also works to enhance the use of technology and digital transformation to support the work and procedures as well as enhance cooperation and build partnerships at the internal and external levels, and develop the structure and capabilities to be among the distinguished regional and global specialized bodies.
