Introduction

Qatar is a small, peninsular country in the Persian Gulf. Traditionally, its economy was based on trading among nomadic Bedouin tribes as well as fishing and pearl farming undertaken by a small population of coastal Arabs. However, the economy and the country itself have undergone a rapid change since large reserves of oil and natural gas were discovered in 1939. Despite its size, Qatar is now an extremely wealthy country; it has the highest number of millionaires per capita (“The economy: The haves and the have-nots”, 2013) and is ranked as having the highest GDP per capita in the world (Qatar National Bank, 2014).

The newly acquired wealth and associated development have not come without challenges. Since 1984 the population has grown from just under 350,000 to over 2.2 million in January, 2015 (Qatar Statistics Authority, 2015). Air pollution is among the highest in the world (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014), many feel that social and cultural values are being eroded (Fellow, 2013), and there have been growing concerns about the mistreatment of foreign workers (Al Jazeera, 2014; Grant and Falconer, 2013). Health has also been negatively affected. Over 75% of men and women over 19 are overweight or obese (Ng et al., 2014), major depressive disorder has become the main cause of disability adjusted life years (i.e., DALYs) and ischemic heart disease is the number two cause of death after road injury (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2013).

A substantial amount of Qatar’s financial resources are being utilized to address these health challenges. In fact, healthcare in Qatar is undergoing a period of major reform driven by the strong economy and a vision for a world-class healthcare system. Transnational knowledge relations and foreign healthcare professionals play a large role in building this healthcare system. Qatar’s National Health Strategy outlines the framework that will be used to develop a world class healthcare system (General Secretariat for Development Planning, 2008). According to the National Health Strategy (General Secretariat for Development Planning, 2008: 56), interprofessional education has the potential to improve the “cohesiveness and connectedness” of the national healthcare system; it is listed as a tool for improving service delivery for a more integrated system of healthcare (Supreme Council of Health, 2011).