DOH Doctor Exam study guide
DOH Doctor Exam · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Department of Health, Abu Dhabi (DOH) physician licensing examination, still widely called the HAAD doctor exam after its legacy name, is the assessment that international and UAE-based physicians typically complete as part of the credentialing pathway to practise medicine in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. It is aimed at physicians at general-practice or entry-to-specialty level who have completed primary-source verification of their qualifications and now need to show a broad, safe, day-one clinical knowledge base. The DOH Doctor Exam study guide has 10 sections and about 3,041 words.
01Internal Medicine: Reasoning Across Systems
High-yield clusters on this exam are cardiopulmonary diagnosis, acid–base and electrolyte interpretation, glycaemic emergencies, acute kidney injury, anaemia classification, and the four-pillar heart-failure regimen (ARNI/ACE inhibitor, beta-blocker, mineralocorticoid antagonist, SGLT2 inhibitor). Know the diagnostic criteria you are being tested on rather than isolated facts: for example, sepsis is infection plus organ dysfunction, and heart failure is symptoms plus objective evidence, not a single natriuretic peptide value.
337 words, about 2 min02Surgery: Assessment, Timing, and Safe Operative Decisions
Expect questions on the acute abdomen, perioperative risk stratification, wound classification, trauma resuscitation, and the complications that announce themselves late. Master the differential for abdominal pain by quadrant and by onset, the features that separate obstruction from ileus, and the indications for urgent versus emergent operation.
308 words, about 2 min03Pediatrics: Development, Dehydration, and the Febrile Infant
Core areas are growth and developmental surveillance, nutrition, immunisation, common respiratory and gastrointestinal illness, and the recognition of the sick child. Learn developmental milestones in domains (gross motor, fine motor, language, social) and remember the red flags: loss of skills, persistent asymmetry, no social smile by around 8 weeks, no babbling by 6 months, and failure of expected weight gain.
304 words, about 2 min04Family Medicine and Primary Care: Continuity, Complexity, and Stewardship
Primary care questions test breadth, prioritisation, and long-term relationship management rather than rare diagnoses. Expect multimorbidity, polypharmacy review, screening and immunisation, mental health in the consulting room, musculoskeletal complaints, and antibiotic stewardship.
310 words, about 2 min05Obstetrics and Gynecology: Antenatal Risk, Labour, and Postpartum Safety
Key areas are antenatal scheduling and dating, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, gestational diabetes, labour and its stages, postpartum haemorrhage, contraception counselling, and gynaecological screening. Accurate dating by early ultrasound underpins decisions about viability, growth restriction, and timing of delivery.
293 words, about 1 min06Emergency Medicine: Structured Resuscitation Under Time Pressure
The exam expects a disciplined approach: primary survey (airway, breathing, circulation, disability, exposure), then resuscitation, then secondary survey. Know the reversible causes of cardiac arrest, the sepsis bundle elements, time-critical stroke assessment, toxidromes, and anaphylaxis management.
296 words, about 1 min07Psychiatry: Description, Risk, and Differentiating Syndromes
Expect the mental state examination in structured form: appearance and behaviour, speech, mood and affect, thought form and content, perception, cognition, insight, and risk. Know the diagnostic building blocks of depression, mania, psychosis, anxiety, and substance withdrawal, plus the interface between physical and mental health.
296 words, about 1 min08Basic and Clinical Sciences: Building Blocks Behind Clinical Decisions
This domain tests the mechanisms that explain clinical rules rather than isolated trivia. Be comfortable with physiology: Starling forces, renal handling and clearance, respiratory gas exchange, cardiac output determinants, and hormonal feedback loops.
305 words, about 2 min09Ethics, Professionalism, and Patient Safety: Judgement Under Scrutiny
Ethical reasoning on this exam rests on autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice, applied through consent, confidentiality, capacity, and allocation. Valid consent requires capacity, adequate information, and voluntariness.
299 words, about 1 min10Preventive Medicine and Public Health: Populations and Probability
Know the levels of prevention: primordial and primary act before disease, secondary detects early disease, tertiary limits complications, and quaternary avoids overmedicalisation. Screening programmes are judged against demanding criteria - an important condition, a suitable test with acceptable performance, an effective treatment, and evidence that earlier detection changes outcome.
293 words, about 1 min