BU builds dental school in Dubai

BU was selected from 20 schools around the world to establish a health center and dental school in the Emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

BU President Robert Brown and GSDM (Goldman School of Dental Medicine) Dean Spencer Frankl, DDS, MScD, recently signed a Heads of Agreement with Muhadditha Al-Hashimi, PhD, chief executive officer of Dubai Healthcare City, for the establishment of the Boston University Institute for Dental Research and Education Dubai and the Boston University Dental Health Center Dubai at Dubai Healthcare City.

The institute will focus on furthering dental research in the region and on training graduate dentists in the dental specialties. GSDM faculty will develop and oversee the training programs. The dental health center will provide comprehensive and prevention-oriented dental services to residents of the region, as well as visitors to Dubai.

BU was awarded the Dubai Project in 2005. The health center will begin seeing patients in early 2008, and the first class of students starts in July.

The institute is submitting an application for accreditation from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the United Arab Emirates.

Dubai Healthcare City, a free medical zone within the Emirate of Dubai, has been developed as a world-class, academic medical community, which will be developed around the Harvard Medical School Dubai Center, Boston University Institute for Dental Research and Education, and a major university hospital, according to Kathi Ferland, director of admissions at GSDM. Ferland will serve as director of the Dubai Project.

The campus will also contain a wellness center offering integrative medicine, private clinics, and branches of several international medical and pharmaceutical corporations that will be available in the medical community.

GSDM has appointed Thomas Kilgore, DMD, associate dean for advanced education and international programs at GSDM, as chief academic officer of the institute. Ramzi Sarkis, DMD, CAGS, assistant professor of endodontics at GSDM, will serve as director of educational planning in the Office for Advanced Education and International Programs.