CONVOCATION REPORT BATCH: 2007 – 2009 (INDIA)

The International Emergency Medicine Program at the Ronald Reagan Institute of Emergency Medicine (RRIEM) under the prestigious George Washington University, Washington DC seeks to advance the practice of Emergency Medicine worldwide by promoting a global exchange of knowledge and ideas. This program serves as a valued partner to Ministries, universities and organizations in different countries to improve emergency medicine services and practices worldwide.

Since 1991, the RRIEM has been providing emergency department operations assessment, strategic planning, medical education and academic research for health care system across the globe. The Institute has the capacity to analyze, develop and conduct the emergency medicine projects in the pre-hospital setting to improve patient management in emergency department. Comprehensive range of capacity in injury prevention, EMS and disaster medicine, emergency ultrasound and academic research empowered the institute to have a leading role in global emergency medicine development worldwide.

The Ronald Reagan Institute of Emergency medicine (RRIEM) offers a two-year International Emergency Medicine Fellowship program in India at four different sites. This program provides exciting opportunities in teaching, research, clinical practice and collaborating with many educational and health care institutes worldwide. The fellowship program provides exciting opportunities to work with the valued partners around the world along with pursuing professional teaching, research and clinical practice of emergency medicine and public health. This is the first program in India supervised onsite by accredited ER Physicians from an US University.
The first batch of India started in 2007 at The Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences, Calicut and The Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences, Trivandrum. The course was conducted onsite by US faculty a week in a month and Indian Faculty rest of the time for a two year period. During this time fellows underwent extensive academic schedule as per US residency curriculum and also carried out a research work towards successful completion of the program.
The first ever exit examination was held at The Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences ( MIMS), Calicut, India between 2nd and 4th July 2009. Out of 17 candidates 11 graduated successfully and 6 are kept for remediation. This was followed by a convocation ceremony of the University at MIMS.

After the procession of faculty and graduated fellows entered the MIMS auditorium at 10 AM on 4th July 2009, the Invocation song was rendered, followed by welcome address by Dr Prof Kartikeyan Verma, Director MIMS Academy. Then the Convocation was declared open by Prof Verma. Dr Abdulla Cheryakat, MD of MIMS was the next speaker who delivered the keynote address and congratulated all the fellows for their outstanding performance. Dr Azad Moopen, The Chairman of MIMS, in his speech described the future plan of MIMS group to expand Emergency medicine training across India and abroad.
Dr Jeffrey Smith, The Co-director of the Reagan Institute and Director of the Fellowship Program at The George Washington University delivered his graduation day speech and invited fellows to receive their certificates. He emphasized the need of proper supervision by onsite accredited faculty for a EM course to get international recognition and not just organizing exams for certification. He expressed hope that the Medical Council of India will recognize the specialty and the hard work of the EM community in India in near future.
This was followed by brief address by Dr Tamorish Kole, GWU PGFEM Course Director at Max Healthcare, New Delhi, India and Dr Venugopal PP the course director at MIMS.
The convocation ceremony ended with the Thanksgiving speech by Dr K Mohanakrishnan, Director Operation of MIMS. Local Media covered the convocation ceremony and appreciated the effort of GWU in India.