Humanitarian

IMSA Humanitarian & Education Committee

One of IMSA’s new activities is the formation of the Humanitarian & Education Committee for our beloved home country of Iraq. The objective of this committee is to help improve the standard of health care in the country following decades of decline.

Humanitarian Objectives:

1. Assist and coordinate the provision of medical care to critically ill Iraqi patients in the United States and elsewhere
2. Raise funds from the expatriate Iraqi community and other donors to provided free medical care, travel and living expenses for critically ill Iraqi citizens.
3. Coordinate medical missions to visit Iraq and provide state-of-the-art treatment for Iraqis inside Iraq and train Iraqi physicians and other healthcare providers on the latest medical advances.
4. Raise funds and work with other governmental and nongovernmental donors to provide medical supplies to clinics and hospitals in Iraq.

Educational Objectives:

1. Organization of Continued Medical Education (CME) programs and conferences. Interested IMSA members will be encouraged to propose CME programs in their field of expertise. The committee will help in the planning and logistics of the activity in collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Iraq and other organizations that can offer help.
2. A mentoring program for Iraqi physicians. Interested IMSA members from different specialties will be encouraged to help their counterpart colleagues in Iraq for consultation in difficult cases, transfer of knowledge and expertise for new advances in the field, training courses, membership to learned societies, help attending meetings and other such issues.
3. Help in bringing physicians from Iraq for higher training. There are two formats for this: one for new graduates that have completed their residency for specialty training, and another for practicing physicians wanting to take short training courses.
4. Establish a relationship with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Higher Education, Health and Environment Committee of the Iraqi Parliament, and medical schools to help in their efforts to improve the health care services and education in Iraq.
5. Collaborate with other non-government organizations that are actively delivering humanitarian services to Iraq.
6. Help exiled Iraqi physicians regain their license to practice in Iraq.
7. Other matters that would also be considered:
   
   1. Other proposals made by the committee members and IMSA general members.
   2. USMLE exams for Iraqi medical school graduates.
   3. Recognition of qualified Iraqi medical schools by the ECFMG.

Grants for research and training courses for Iraqi physicians. The general members interested to be members or associates to the committee, assigned to particular projects of their interest.