Building medical education and research capacity in areas of conflict and instability: experiences of the OxPal Medlink in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Medical education and research capacity are often neglected in areas of conflict and instability. Physical and geographical barriers to accessing clinical learning environments, lack of dedicated teaching hospitals and frequent economic sanctions may all stunt the growth of a robust teaching culture in such regions. Here, we focus on the unique geopolitical situation of the occupied Palestinian territories and present our experiences with the OxPal MedLink, a web-based distance-learning collaboration which aims to address the educational needs of Palestinian medical students.