They are the “pioneers” of a unique project, which was confirmed on 21 May in Philadelphia: Drs. Vic Vandebroucke and Ryan D'Souza, who graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the Rome campus of Università Cattolica on 15 May, were among the protagonists at the Commencement ceremony of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College (SKMC) of Thomas Jefferson University.
“We at SKMC are very proud of the first two graduates of our Double MD Program,” said Said Ibrahim and Steven Herrine, Dean and Vice-Dean of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College. “Vic and Ryan are emblematic of the like-mindedness, collegiality and synergy of the two institutions that co-sponsor this program. We look forward to seeing more promising young doctors work their way through this challenging course of study and will watch their careers develop with pride and interest.”
“Once again, Università Cattolica demonstrates that it has an international educational breadth,” commented Prof. Antonio Gasbarrini, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, “offering students paths of excellence and, in particular with this double degree programme, a global and integrated education.”
In the three years and nine months of their experience at Thomas Jefferson University, the student career and academic performance of Drs. Vandebroucke and D'Souza has been indistinguishable from that of top US students, and the new doctors have brilliantly completed their studies in the United States. As of the beginning of next July, D'Souza will remain at Thomas Jefferson where he will be a resident in Internal Medicine while Vandebroucke will move to Harrisburg, a medical centre of the University of Pittsburgh as a resident in Emergency Medicine.
“The circumstance that most pleases me,” commented Prof. Giovanni Gambassi, President of the degree programme in Medicine and Surgery, “is that the programme has indeed corresponded to what we had hoped for with a foresight fuelled by healthy optimism, but also by a pinch of recklessness. Today we certify that ours was not a proclamation: Università Cattolica is the first University to implement a certified dual degree programme in Medicine. This fills me with pride and satisfaction because we have been able to blend the best recipes of medical education into a unified pathway, combining the solid depth of theoretical knowledge typical of the degree programme in Italy with the extraordinary applicative acquisition of clinical skills and medical expertise that characterises the medical school in the USA. It is therefore not a hybrid but an unparalleled complementary and augmentative combination.”
“The milestone achieved by the first two students enrolled in the double degree programme in medicine and surgery at Università Cattolica and Thomas Jefferson University,” added Prof. Ignazio Marino, Emeritus Professor of Surgery at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, “not only represents a personal victory for two motivated and ambitious students, but also the concrete realisation of a visionary project shared by two academic institutions of excellence. We have inaugurated a unique pathway on the international scene, destined to train the doctors of the global era.”
And full of the future are the closing words by Susan Alridge, President of Thomas Jefferson University: “As you leave here today savoring what’s most definitely an experience to remember, I challenge all of you to go forward and invent a better, safer and healthier world.”
Pictured are Doctors Vic Vandenbroucke and Ryan D'Souza with Professor Giovanni Gambassi
