Today morning, the regional training course on Nuclear Oncology using SPECT/CT & PET/CT was opened at Dubai Police Club. The 5-days training course is organized by Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences and Dubai Health Authority in cooperation with the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging Section, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The training course is held with the participation of 20 specialists in the nuclear medicine from the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. The course comes within the framework of strengthening the Nuclear Medicine applications through education and training to help fighting non-communicable diseases (ARASIA).

 

The opening session of the course was attended by Dr. Ahmed al-Hashemi, a member of the Board of Trustees of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences, Mr. Abdullah bin Souqat, the Executive Director of the Award, Dr. Jamila Al Sheikh, the Director of the Department of Medical Education, DHA, Dr. Jamila Al Suwaidi, Consultant, Radiation in Medicine Developments and Director of Medical Radiation Projects with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

 

Dr. Ahmed al-Hashemi, a member of the award’s Board of Trustees of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences delivered the opening speech of the workshop. He welcomed the attendees and praised the directives of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance, Chairman of the Dubai Health Authority and the Patron of the award on providing all aspects of support to improve the continuing medical education in all medical sectors within the UAE and abroad with the aim of improving the healthcare services.

“Organizing the workshop comes within the framework of the award’s tireless efforts in promoting continuing medical education locally, regionally and internationally. This program strives to instigate networking interactions among experts from all around the world in order to share professional experiences and the latest information, and thus improve the health care services at all levels”, Dr. Ahmed Al Hashimi added.

Dr. Jamila AL Sheikh, the Director of the Department of Medical Education, DHA, extended the greetings of H.E. Eng. Eissa Al Maidour, the Director General of Dubai Health Authority. She praised the cooperation between the DHA and the International Atomic Energy Agency aiming at promoting the safe use of radiation in medical applications and building human capacities in diagnosis and therapeutic use of radiations.

“The DHA is approaching its aim of creating a training center for the sciences of radiation in medicine to serve the fast growth of advanced medical imaging technology and radiation therapy in order to further open horizons for exchange of news information related to progress of nuclear medicine”, Dr. Jamila AL Sheikh noted.

On the sidelines of the opening session, Dr. Batool Al Balooshi, the director of the training course, spoke about the scientific program which includes 23 interactive lectures presented by a group of specialists from the UAE and abroad, including 3 experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency namely; Professor Sobhan Vinjamuri, The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals, the United Kingdom, Dr. Medhat Osman, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, USA, and Dr. Larry Cheon,  Seoul National University College of Medicine, South Korea.

Dr. Batool Al Balushi said that the aim of this course is to train specialists on the latest diagnostic equipments in the field of the nuclear medicine, which combines between the features of imaging by using the nuclear medicine, which give information about the organs functions and the prevalence of tumors, and the features of imaging by using the CT which give information about the anatomy of these organs.

The lectures deal with many important topics, including the use of these devices in imaging the whole body or the tumors in particular organs such as the head and neck, lung or brain ... etc. Also, the workshop discusses many other important issues such as the ethical dilemmas in nuclear medicine.

Dr. Jamila Al Suwaidi, Consultant, Radiation in Medicine Developments and Director of Medical Radiation Projects with the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that there is a number of local and regional scientific projects organized by the Dubai Health Authority in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency started during the nineties, in line with the significant expansion in nuclear applications in the medical field (diagnostic and therapeutic).

Increasing the use of nuclear applications in the medical field highlights the importance of improving the specialists in the nuclear medicine and maintaining international standards for safe use of radiation and for protecting patients.