The three-day conference is being held in conjunction with the 5th
Asia Africa Conference of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive
Care and Critical Care Medicine (WFSICCM), 9th International Pan Arab
Critical Care Medicine Society (IPACCMS) and the 1st Middle East
Surviving Sepsis Campaign Meeting.
The conference is organized by the Emirates Intensive Care Society
(EICS) and the International Pan Arab Critical Care Medicine Society
(EICS) and is supported by the Dubai Health Authority and Sheikh Hamdan
Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences.
Al Maidoor highlighted the importance of this conference during his
opening speech and extended his gratitude to His Highness Sheikh Hamdan
Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance
and President of the DHA for sponsoring this conference and for his
direction under which Dubai has been able to advance the level of health
services and expertise of its medical professionals.
He said: “The conference, which is being held for the ninth
consecutive year, is of great significance, as it coincides with the
launch of the first edition of the 1st Middle East Surviving Sepsis
Campaign Meeting. The statistics issued by the World Health Organization
indicate that sepsis has become the leading causes of death worldwide.
Every year, an estimated 20-30 million patients are afflicted, with over
6 million cases of neonatal and early childhood sepsis, with one person
dying every minute because of this disease.
“Hence, this scientific forum gains utmost importance for the review
of the latest research and global developments in the field of sepsis
prevention. The conference is a platform to discuss the latest ways to
improve services provided to critically ill patients.
“The DHA has always paid great emphasis to this field because we
realize the importance of management of such cases and thus the DHA has
built various Intensive Care Units (ICU’s) across its hospitals, where
we have trained personnel, state-of-the-art medical equipment and this
has helped us reduce our mortality rates in ICUs from 60 per cent to 35
per cent, which is less than the international bench mark of 40 to 50
per cent.”
Al Maidoor said that while this is a significant achievement, the aim
to further strengthen care of ICU patients and develop strategies for
dealing with emerging issues in the field of critical care.
Dr Hussain Nasser Al Rahma, the President of the 9th Conference of
Emirates Intensive Care Society, President of the International Pan Arab
Critical Care Medicine Society, Chairman of the Emirates Intensive Care
Society and head of ICU, Dubai Hospital, said that the field of
critical care is of great importance to help alleviate the suffering of
critically ill patients.
Dr Al Rahma said, “Critical care is a fast advancing specialty and is dependent on highly skilled professionals, latest technology and integration of services to achieve the best patient outcomes and to lower mortality rates.
Dubai is currently the benchmark in this region and one of the
leaders in critical care, we have the latest equipment and skilled
medical staff and we strongly focus on training students and faculty in
this field.”
He highlighted that Dubai Hospital is equipped with the latest
non-invasive medical equipment that helps gauge the complete status of
patients and immediately identifies what is wrong with the patient.
“Such sophisticated equipment and highly skilled staff have helped us
provide internationally recognized levels of care to patients and has
reduced the risk of mortality in our ICU’s”.
Moreover, DHA is training medical and nursing students from Europe,
Australia and East Asian Pacific region in the field of critical care
who train at the hospital to gain practical experience.
He added that the critical care unit at the DHA is a leading unit
which is training doctors from different hospitals in the UAE on the use
of the new technologies in critical care.
Al Rahma said that although Dubai is a benchmark in terms of critical
care, the field is ever changing and therefore holding such conferences
which brings together esteemed healthcare professionals is of
significant importance.
Dr. Al Rahma said that the highlight of this year’s conference is it
is being held in cooperation with the 1st Middle East Surviving Sepsis
Campaign Meeting. He said, “This year, the conference will discuss
sepsis prevention and management in great detail because sepsis causes
more deaths globally than cardiovascular diseases, cancer etc. Surviving
Sepsis Campaign Meeting is advocating that globally we recognize the
high mortality rates caused by this disease so that all measures can be
taken at various levels to prevent patients from developing this
disease.”
He added that raising awareness amongst all healthcare providers and
then the public about sepsis is much needed given the significantly high
number of deaths caused globally due to this disease.
Dr Khalid Shukri, Founder, Past President and current Secretary
General of the International Pan Arab Critical Care Medicine Society
said, “ No matter what the specialization is, from cardiology to
general surgery and gynaecology, when a patient is critically ill, he is
moved to the ICU because that is where the patient is monitored
continuously and provided intensive levels of care. Therefore the
importance of this field will only grow in the years to come.”
Al Rahma mentioned that the conference will present several research
papers, will hold 180 lectures and 12 workshops with the participation
of 62 key speakers.
He also mentioned that in conjunction with WFSICCM, the conference
will discuss new developments and research papers from all over the
world which were conducted during the past six months in that field of
critical care. He added that more than 30 presidents from various
critical societies the world over, are taking part in this congress.
Dr Hussein Al Rahma said that the conference will present nine awards this year.
Participants from more than 30 countries are taking part in this
congress. They include participants from USA, Chile, Colombia, Brasil,
Argentina, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, India, Korea, China, Hong
Kong, Japan, the GCC countries, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria,
Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan and South Africa.
Source: Emirates247
To find out more about the conference, please visit the ECCC website.
