On Monday, October 14, 2019, the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) celebrated the Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University, Indianapolis, USA (IU Health). Riley at IU Health was ranked in 9 out of 10 pediatric specialties by U.S. News and World Report for 2019 and remains the only nationally ranked children’s hospital in Indiana. In addition, 8 specialty programs are ranked in the top 25, with the Cardiology and Heart Surgery and Urology programs being ranked in the top 10.
AUB and IU Health both have health science-related programs and affiliated health care systems that are involved in biomedical research, education and clinical services; and they both desired to launch and develop a formal cooperation and exchange collaboration to facilitate cooperation in clinical, research, and education in the areas of Pediatrics, Adolescent Medicine, and Pediatric Surgery and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery.
AUBMC and IU Health will endeavor to promote collaboration through a broad range of strategies. This collaboration will add a new dimension in forwarding AUBMC Vision at various levels including, but not limited to, exchange of students/residents/fellows; exchange and visit of faculty members; joint research activities; joint educational programs; exchange of academic materials; administrative collaborations (which entails projects pertaining to infection control, antimicrobial stewardship, quality and safety); and Potential Programmatic Collaborations (which entails humanitarian efforts, Collaborative Children’s Hospital, joint regional and international meetings and conferences, and Hybrid Model - towards building self-standing pediatric centers).
The signing ceremony was attended by IU Health Leadership, Mr. Matthew Cook, President of Riley Hospital for Children, Dr. Elaine Cox, MD, Chief Medical Officer, and Dr. Mark Turrentine, Thoracic Surgeon and AUBMC Leadership. The MOU was signed by President Mathew Cook on behalf of IU Health/Riley and Executive Vice President/ Dean Mohamed Sayegh, and the External Medical Affairs (EMA) Executive Director Dr. Fadi Bitar on behalf of AUBMC.