United Arab Emirates, Dubai: February 28, 2017: Abdullah Bin Souqat, a member of the Board of Trustees of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences, inaugurated the training course entitled "Making Patients and Staff Safer in Radiological Imaging”, organized by the award in cooperation with the Dubai Health Authority.

 

The 2-days program is held at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Academic Medical Center, with the participation of 40 doctors, radiologists, physicists and healthcare professionals who will receive 8 CME hours accredited by the Dubai Health Authority.

 

During the opening ceremony, Abdullah bin Souqat welcomed the participants in this important program which is in line with the main goals of the award namely; supporting excellence in all medical disciplines and at all levels.

 

“Regionally, the UAE is a pioneering country in applying the internationally-approved radiation safety programs in public and private medical institutions, in order to improve its competitiveness as a main attraction for the regional medical tourism”, he said.

 

“Since 2014 until now, the award has organized a series of training courses within the UAE, in collaboration with the DHA, about this topic. Monitoring the radiation safety has become an indicator for the standards of quality in medical institutions which seek to receive the international accreditation; it is no longer an optional procedure but a mandatory”.

 

Dr. Jamila Al-Suwaidi, Consultant, Radiation in Medicine Developments, Department of Medical Education, DHA, and the Co-Director of the training programs, extended her thanks to the Hamdan Medical Award for its ongoing support for these programs, which is important in the light of the increasing usage of medical radiation, particularly the CT scan.

 

“Despite the effectiveness of radiation to define patients’ problems accurately, the excessive doses of radiation and non-commitment to the protection guidelines could lead to serious consequences”.

 

Dr. Al-Suweidi praised the cooperation between the specialists from public and private hospitals and healthcare centers at the state level, and the international experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency and other international organizations. “Throughout these training courses, we study the radiation doses within the UAE and compare it with the internationally recommended and adopted standards”, she added.

 

Worthy to mention that, this training course is held with the participation of Dr. Madan Rehani from Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA, and Professor Donald Brush, from the Medical Center, Duke University, USA.

 

Several important issues related to the radiation safety are discussed. One of these topics is the application of the radiation safety that couldn’t be achieved by providing the related equipment in radiology departments only, but also by supporting the radiation safety culture among all team members.

 

Accordingly, supporting the continuing communication among all healthcare specialists in medical institutions, such as doctors, nurses, physicians, or even the employees, is very important, with the consideration of many challenges to achieve this goal such as the employees’ multi-cultural and educational backgrounds, and the rapid expansion in this field of medicine.