Center Divisional Structure
Education & Community Outreach Unit
he ECO will be the educational arm of the CIPM. ECO will actively participate in the modernization of the teaching modules of King Abdulaziz University.
The objectives of the ECO are:
- Facilitate the transfer of knowledge to the undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as staff by conducting training programs, workshops and changing teaching modules
- carry the task of representing the CIPM activities to the healthcare practitioners community
- Strive to increase public awareness about the potential benefits of personalized medicine and allay their misconceptions and fears regarding genetic work.
ECO Activities:
Scientific Conferences
Scientific and internationally recognized conferences will be organized jointly by the ECO and the CAU to bring in keynote speakers and renowned scientists. Smaller scale conferences will also be organized where the public will be invited (represented by school students) to interact with the speakers.
Workshops
The ECO will organize workshops teaching students and healthcare practitioners about the technology involved in researching personalized medicine and offer training.
Curricula Development
The ECO will lead the drive to lobby the Saudi Universities and high schools about the need to increase the knowledge base of genetics and molecular biology amongst the students. There is a great need to achieve this goal in order to expand the pool of properly qualified Saudi workforce available to the CIPM.
“Extend Hand”
Operation “Extend Hand” is a scheme where the ECO will carry out steps required to introduce the CIPM’s activities to the public. A flagship procedure of this operation will be a mobile exhibition, sponsored by the business sector that will exhibit the activities of the CIPM in public places like shopping malls and schools. The ECO will
also arrange with schools day trips to the center where pupils will have a chance to meet the scientists and interact with the experiments. A task force composed of the ECO and the RDU will be setup to study the best possible way to increase public participation in medical studies and seek collaboration with specialists to
achieve maximum benefit.