Today morning, the 2-days training course entitled "Making Children Safer in Radiological Imaging" has been launched by Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences in cooperation with the Dubai Health Authority. 

 

Abdullah bin Souqat, the Executive Director of Hamdan Medical Award, has opened the training course at Mohammed Bin Rashid Academic Medical Centre, Dubai Healthcare City, with the participation of 75 specialists from the UAE Ministry of Health, Dubai and Abu Dhabi Health authorities, and a number of public and private hospitals in the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. The participants will receive 8.25 CME hour accredited by the DHA and 9.25 CME hours by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

On this occasion, Abdullah bin Souqat delivered a welcoming speech in which he spoke about the course which supports the national program for applying the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency in the field of radiation safety in medical practices. 

 

“With the aim of supporting the training programs in the field of radiation protection, a strategic partnership has been launched in 2014 between Hamdan Medical Award and the Dubai Health Authority, and the World Health Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency and a number of prestigious academic world institutions. “We are so proud of this partnership, because of its role in spreading the awareness among professionals about the need to ensure the highest safety levels of radiation in medical practices,”, Abdullah bin Souqat said.

 

“The diversity in the specialties of the participants is well-noticed in this course. The attendees are pediatricians, radiologists, medical physicists and technicians who work directly or indirectly with children. It will be reflected on achieving the objectives of the program in terms of discussing the status of radiation safety in health institutions and working on developing them in the light of the international standards”, he added.

 

“Organizing such a training program reflects the  keenness of the United Arab Emirates on providing the best medical services with the highest global safety levels, either for patients or practitioners”, he said.

 

Dr. Jamila Al Suwaidi, Consultant in “Radiation in Medicine Developments” at the Department of Medical Education in Dubai Health Authority and the co-Director of the course, said that the program is organized with the participation of a distinguished group of experts as lecturers, including Dr. Donald Frush, Duke University Medical Centre, USA, Dr. Madan Rehani, Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA, and Dr. Yahya Labib, Consultant radiologist, Al Jalila Specialist Children's Hospital.

 

“The scientific program includes two main topics, the first of which is health risks associated with ionizing radiation, and the optimized use of radiation in children. This topic is discussed in the light of the provided recommendation published by a number of international organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), World Health Organization (WHO), International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), and United Nations Scientific Committee on Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR)”, she added. 

 

As for the second topic to be discussed, it is about the status of radiation safety in paediatric imaging in the UAE, and the present UAE paediatric radiation dose levels comparing with the international references.