The Saudi International Medical Education Conference (SIMEC) hosts the largest biennial gathering of medical educators in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, boosting its status as the most prominent and foremost medical education conference in the region. SIMEC 2016 marks the fifth conference in this series, continuing the legacy and positive outreach caused by SIMEC since its beginning. Many health professionals and researchers in the fields of medical and health sciences education, public health, basic, clinical and social sciences participate in this international gathering. The conference mainly covers and reports recent developments and research in the medical education field. It also covers a wide variety of continuously arising topics and issues that are of current importance and interest. These include innovations in medical education, international dimensions, and new curriculum trends. What makes this conference unique is its focus on clinical training (both undergraduate and postgraduate), compared to other medical education conferences which usually focus mainly on undergraduate basic science education. This conference will provide both national as well as a wide spectrum of international perspectives on governance and accreditation issues of medical education and clinical training programs. The conference is led by international authorities who will bring their national and international experience as medical educators, editors, reviewers and contributors to leading journals in the field. In addition, many well-known international medical education institutes will also be participating in this conference. There will also be student sessions dedicated to hearing their perspective and opinions as important stakeholders in the medical education process. It is also important to mention that, fortunately, SIMEC 2016 will be held just before the Ministry of Higher Education’s “International Exhibition Conference on Higher Education” (IECHE) and thus is expected to attract educators attending both conferences. Within SIMEC will be attendees who are leaders of clinical training at partners of Alfaisal University, namely of King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center (KFSHRC), Security Forces Hospital (SFH), and King Saud Medical City (KSMC), and in addition, most Deans of Colleges of Medicine throughout the Kingdom and within the GCC countries will be meeting and attending SIMEC 2016 and holding their GCC Deans Meeting during the conference.
