The Tufts-Saudi Medical Connection

Written by: Dr. John Harrington

Dr. Adel Abu-moustafa

Tufts University. Tufts University School of Medicine. Tufts Medical Center. Tufts.

The reader understandably might be confused by the plethora of “Tufts” in our opening

line. Tufts University encompasses its undergraduate college just north of Boston and its

7 postgraduate schools, including our school, Tufts University School of Medicine

(TUSM) in downtown Boston. Tufts Medical Center, which sits across the street from

TUSM, is its principal teaching hospital, though an independent and separate entity. The

single word “Tufts” is used in general, informal conversation to refer to any and all of the

many Tufts as it is the “flag” that binds our many institutions together.

Our review of the Tufts – Saudi medical interaction over the past 25 or 30 years is written

from the perspective of Tufts University School of Medicine and its International Affairs

office. One of us, Dr. Adel Abu-moustafa, the long-time Dean of International Affairs

(IA), has been the leading architect of the interaction. TUSM’s Dean Emeritus John T.

Harrington, M.D. has been Medical Director of IA since the fall of 2008. He has been

affiliated with Tufts in a variety of positions since the mid-1960’s, including Dean of

TUSM from 1995-2002.

After briefly describing our parent Tufts University and our medical school, TUSM, we

will focus on three of our major Saudi projects that best demonstrate the strength and

vitality of the relationship of TUSM and Saudi Arabia.

Tufts University

Tufts University (Box 1), one of the premier private universities in America, began in

1852 in Medford, Massachusetts, some 10 miles north of Boston. At the time it was

begun by Charles Tufts and his associates, Tufts College was an undergraduate degree-

granting institution only. Its student body, faculty and reputation grew slowly until the

end of World War II. Since then its size and reputation have increased dramatically.

Presently the University has 2 undergraduate schools and 7 graduate and professional

schools. The University’s overall mission heavily stresses public service and international

engagement at all levels. The latter is perhaps best epitomized by its world-renowned

Fletcher School. The University has approximately 9500 students and ≈1200 full-time,

non-clinical faculty overall; ≈5000 students and ≈350 full-time faculty in its

undergraduate schools; awards ≈1000 graduate and professional degrees and ≈1200

undergraduate degrees annually; receives ≈$173,000,000 research dollars from the US

National Institutes of Health (NIH), The National Science Foundation (NSF) and other

foundations; $50 million dollars of that total amount are garnered by the medical school;

and has an endowment of just over one billion dollars. Tufts University is ranked by the

US as 28th in the nation.

Tufts University School of Medicine

TUSM (Box 2) began in 1893 as a small medical school dedicated to training general

medical practitioners for the greater Boston and New England area. In 1950, the school

moved a few miles to its present location in downtown Boston immediately adjacent to

New England Medical Center, now known as Tufts Medical Center. One of the original

member institutions of New England Medical Center was the Boston Dispensary;

founded in 1796, the Dispensary was one of the oldest medical institutions in the United

States. In the 60 years since the school moved to its present site in 1950, the size of the

school and the medical center, and their reputation and research productivity have

mushroomed to an extraordinary degree. The medical school has over 150 basic scientists

(who simultaneously function as the faculty of the Sackler School of Graduate

Biomedical Sciences founded in 1980), over 2500 clinical faculty; nearly 700 students

and graduates approximately 175 physicians annually; and has over 7500 medical school

alumni. TUSM and Tufts Medical Center collectively rank in the top 5% of institutions

receiving NIH funding.

But, Tufts Medicine extends widely beyond its medical school and principal teaching

hospital, Tufts Medical Center. It has five other Major Academic Affiliations around

Boston (even extending approximately 100 miles north to Maine Medical Center), and an

additional 8-10 local Teaching Affiliates. More information about Tufts University and

its principal teaching hospital, Tufts Medical Center, can be found at www.tufts.edu and

www.tuftsmedicalcenter.org, respectively.

The Saudi Connection

As mentioned earlier, the principal architect of TUSM’s link with Saudi Arabia has been

Dean Adel Abu-moustafa. In 1987 TUSM appointed him to direct International Affairs.

Since then, he has managed a variety of TUSM-Saudi programs (including links between

Saudi and the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine), but we focus here only on

three.

The first program, the JAMIAH project, began in 1987 and was designed to aid the

development of King Faisal University. The project was funded by the Saudi American

Commission on Economic Cooperation. Dr. Abu-moustafa was “Chief” of the working

party and acted as the administrative counsel to the President of King Faisal University.

He led a consortium of major US Universities including Harvard, Texas A&M, Virginia

Technical, Rice, Cornell, the Academy for Educational Development in Washington,

D.C. and the Education Development Center in Massachusetts. Among other projects,

JAMIAH assisted in manpower planning, faculty workload and evaluation, and student,

information systems, financial information systems, inventory information systems and

human resources information systems.

The personnel of the JAMIAH project, under the leadership of Dr. Abu-moustafa,

assisted King Faisal University in the development of its schools of Management,

Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture, Education, Architecture and Home Economics. It

provided experts in management, date palm-botanical tissue culture, medical and

scientific instrumentation, computer information systems, research administration and

media. The relationship between King Faisal University (KFU) and Dr. Abu-moustafa

has continued since the inception of the TAMIAH project in 1983 until the present. In

2006, Dr. Abu-moustafa was invited to participate in the 2nd KFU Medical Student Career

Day to lecture on “How to Enhance Your Opportunity to Gain Clinical Residency in the

US”.

Our second Tufts-Saudi project, again directed by Dr. Abu-moustafa, lasted from 1987 to

2000. In 1987, TUSM contracted with the US Department of Treasury to “transfer

technology” to King Abdulaziz University Health Sciences campus in Jeddah. This

agreement, known as the KAU Development Project, was a major part of the work of the

USA-Saudi Commission on Economic Cooperation. It required an annual average budget

of 1.5 million to successfully carry out its many activities.

Under this fruitful agreement, approximately 150 faculty and administrators from Tufts

Medical and Dental Schools traveled to Jeddah to teach short courses, conduct workshops

and seminars, participate in clinical activities and provide training opportunities for Saudi

Faculty, staff and students.

The major activities included assisting in:

Activating the newly developed King Abdulaziz University (KAU) Teaching

Hospital

Assessing the new clinical laboratories

Reviewing the KAU medical curriculum

Establishing integrated health and medical record information systems

Training over 30 Saudis in various clinical residency and fellowship programs

including Surgery, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Pathology,

Radiology, Cardiology, Hematology, etc.

Establishing a state-of-the-art electron microscopy (EM) center, training its staff

and providing an EM technician for KAU for 5 years

Training of ten Saudi Medical Technologists in Laboratory Medicine and

Biomedical Engineering

Hosting numerous Saudi faulty as observers at Tufts clinical and laboratory

faculties

Enrolling over 50 Saudi medical students in Tufts clinical student rotations

Providing over 50 external examiners from Tufts Medical and Dental faculty to

assist KAU student evaluation.

TUSM also was active thru this transfer technology project with provision of medical

workshops on a variety of topics (Box 3), and helping the early development of KAU

Dental School (Box 4).

Dr. Abu-moustafa is well known to the leadership of KAU, and has worked closely with

the administration and faculty staff including the current President H. E. Osama Tayeb,

former Presidents G. E. Osam Shobokshi and Reda Obaird, Deans Adnan Almazrooa

Haisan Kamal, Telal Baksh, Seraj Mira, Hassan Fatami, Abdullah Alfaris and Tariq

Alkhateeb.

Tufts-Saudi interactions understandably fell to its nadir in the four years after the tragic

“911” disaster in New York City. Yet, by 2005, both parties rebuilt their strong

relationship, again utilizing the International affairs (IA) office at TUSM and its Dean,

Dr. Adel Abu-moustafa. The overall goal of the third and present project, funded by the

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is improvement of the Saudi medical workforce. Dr.

Mohammed Al-Eissa, Saudi Cultural Attaché, signed an agreement with Tufts

International Affairs to place Saudi physicians in residency and fellowship programs. To

help accomplish this objective, IA works closely with clinical training program directors

at all of TUSM’s teaching affiliates, fostering the placement of young Saudi graduates in

a variety of clinical disciplines. In 2005, approximately 7 Saudi graduates obtained Tufts

residency positions, whereas at present, some 65 young Saudi physicians are enrolled at

Tufts Medical Center, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Lahey Medical Center, Baystate

Medical Center, Carney Medical Center and others. The residents are training in Surgery

(11), Internal Medicine (17), Psychiatry (7), Anesthesiology (7), Dermatology (4),

Neurology (2) Radiology (5) and others. In addition to these 3 projects we have chosen to

describe in detail, TUSM also has worked extensively with Saudi Aramco (Box 5) since

1989.

In closing, we must point out the critical work of the Saudi Cultural Attaché office under

the leadership of Dr. Mohammed A. Al-Eissa. His support of the Saudi physicians and

excellent management style are crucial to the success of the Tufts-Saudi Connection. The

real success will be realized as these Saudi physicians, well-trained in American

medicine, return to Saudi to care for thousands of Saudi citizens over the next several

decades.

Box 1Tufts University

Established: 1982

Total Students: 9,531

Undergraduate Students: 5,025

Graduate/Professional Students: 4,182

International Students: 1,150

Total Faculty (non-clinical): 1,227

Total Staff: 2,982

Total Volumes (all libraries): 1.2 million

Motto: Pax and Lux

Box 2Tufts University School of Medicine

Established: 1893

Site: Downtown Boston

Full-time Faculty: 150

Full-time Clinical Faculty: 1,363

Total Faculty, Including Part-time: 3,925

First year entering class (2009 data)

Applicants: 7,361

Matriculates: 113 men; 87 women

Living Alumni: 7,500

Box 3Medical Workshops Provided in Saudi

Use of laser in Surgery

Laparoscopic Surgery

Diabetes Mellitus

Otolaryngology

Breast Cancer

Colorectal Cancer

Pain Management

In Vitro Fertilization

Application of Molecular Biology to Medicine

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Osteoporosis

Clinical Research

Box 4TUSM’s Work With KAU Dental School

Planned the establishment of the Faculty of Dental Medicine; over 30 faculty from Tufts

participated in teaching specific courses when the Saudi expertise didn’t exist

Established the Dental Implant Center and training of Saudis in its operation

Trained over 50 Saudi dentists in various specialty fields

Provided a consultant for 3 years to assist the Dean of Medicine in administering the newly

developed Dental faculty

Box 5Training of Aramco’s Medical Staff

Laparoscopy

In General Surgery

In Obstetrics/Gynecology

In Urology

Development of Cardiac Catheterization

Operating Room Design

Cardiac Surgery

Workshops

Pain Management

Phacoemulsification

Laser in Ophthalmology

Primary Care

Geriatrics