The Cairo University Medical College (Kasr Al-Aini) offers B.Sc. in Medicine and Surgery in 35 academic and clinical disciplines. The first medical school in Egypt had been established in the area of Abu Zaabal (north-east of Cairo) by the French doctor Antoine Clott Bek, to help maintain public health at a time the medical profession was in the hands of cuppers and other charlatans. It also helped reduce the need for foreign doctors.

 

In 1827 a new medical school was established and about 300 Egyptian and foreign students were admitted. In 1832 the distinguished graduates of the said school were sent to Paris to continue their studies, ultimately constituting the first medical education staff in Egypt. The new Medical School was in fact an extension to previous ones, especially the Alexandria School of Medicine, and the Arab School of Medicine.

 

In 1849, Dr. Mohamed Efendi Al-Shafei became head of the Kasr Al-Aini School of Medicine in his capacity as the first recognized Egyptian doctor. In 1925, the Kasr Al-Aini School of Medicine was affiliated with the newly established Cairo University, and was renamed as The Faculty of Medicine. Its first dean was Dr. AN Ibrahim Pasha.

 

Kasr Al-Aini Medical College has provided, and continues to provide the Egyptian and Arab society with doctors.

Today, it has a student population of more than 10,000 including undergraduates and graduate students (diploma, Masters and Ph.D.). More than one thousand students graduate from the College every year.

 

To enhance research, the College has three libraries with thousands of references, books and journals. The oldest library goes back to 1827, the year of the foundat' of the College.

 

The College has a faculty of over 3,000 covering the various branches of med cine, while the college's hospital (Kasr Al-Aini Hospital) has a staff of nearly 10,000 doctors,technicians and nurses. The hospital is virtually divided into eight major units receiving millions of patients every year. The 39 specialist units alone receive about one million every year.

 

Among the College graduates are some prominent doctors who have assumed key positions in Egypt and the Arab World, such as Dr. Noureddin Tarraf, once a Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt, the prominent man of letters Dr. Youssef Idris, Dr. Hussein Al Jazaeri, former Saudi Minister of Health, and the world-known cardiologist Dr. Magdy Yacoub.

 

The College has undertaken successive development projects to keep abreast of world scientific and medical developments. Chief among such projects is "Doctor of the Future" which seeks to promote the skills of registrars and junior doctors, and to train them in up-to-date diagnostic and therapeutic modalities such as heart and lung activation, and the installation of probes. This is in addition to a continual bid to develop curricula and medical education, distant medical education, and the constant development of research and graduate studies. Moreover, the College is going ahead with a project to identify the gene responsible for heart diseases, as well as a number of projects related to society development.

 

Side by side with its scientific, academic and health care role, Kasr Al-Aini contributes effectively to relief campaigns in Egypt and abroad. The most outstanding example is its role in relief works undertaken when a strong earthquake hit the country in 1992 resulting in severe damage to the entire Egyptian society. All the potentialities of Kasr Al-Aini hospitals were mobilized to save the victims and provide the necessary relief.

 

Moreover, the College has dispatched medical teams to Palestine to perform heart and injury surgeries, and other teams to Iraq to contribute to the rehabilitation of hospitals there.

 

For its marked role in medical education, and its contributions to the welfare of Egyptian and Arab society, its ardent bid to provide the Arab medical sector with thousands of doctors over 170 years, and for its humanitarian services, Kasr Al-Aini deserves the Hamdan Award for Medical Colleges/ Institutions or Centres in the Arab World for the year 2003-2004.