Tuesday 12 / November / 2024
Muscat: His Highness Sayyid Taimour bin Asa’ad bin Tariq Al Said presided over the opening of the 13th Gulf Heart Association Conference at Al Bustan Palace Hotel yesterday.
Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Sa’eedi, Minister of Health, Dr. Hajar Ahmed Hajar Al Binali, Adviser to the Emir of Qatar, and Prof. Sir Magdi Yacoub, international cardio surgeon senior officials were present on the occasion.
Welcoming the guests, Prof. Mohammed Zubaid, Chairman of the Gulf Heart Association shed light on the three activities of the Association, namely organising an annual Heart conference, publishing medical journals, such as the Arabic Heart magazine, which is considered an educational source for doctors in the GCC, and the third activity is represented in its records for health surveys of several diseases.
Moreover, Dr. Kadhim Ja’afar Sulaiman, Vice-President of Oman Heart Association (OHA), Head of the Conference’s Organising Committee said in his welcome speech that based on the GHA studies that proved the cardio diseases are the main cause of deaths in the Gulf community, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has carried out a comprehensive survey for non communicable chronic disease risk factors, the most importance of which are heart diseases with the aim of setting up necessary plans and programs to tackle these diseases.
He affirmed that the Organising Committee has taken the necessary steps and measures to ensure the success of this conference.
Later, Prof. Sir Magdi Yacoub, Cardiothoracic Surgeon from the United Kingdom (UK) delivered the conference opening speech.
The inauguration programme included a presentation on the GCC Heart Association and its former conferences, in addition to another presentation on the National Heart Centre.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, the chief guest of the conference opened the accompanying exhibition of the pharmaceutical companies. The exhibition allowed the medical industries to display their latest medical equipment and medicines used in the diagnosis and treatment of various cardiac conditions. It also presented booklets about heart prepared by the Oman Heart Association and the MoH.
The four-day conference, which is organised by the Oman Heart Association, in collaboration with the MoH, was attended by more than 600 participants from the Sultanate, GCC, and other countries including cardiologists, other medical specialties, and assistance medical categories. More than 50 prominent experts in the field of cardiovascular diseases from the Sultanate, GCC, United States and several European countries took part in the conference with lectures.
The Scientific sessions started earlier in the morning addressing various themes through presenting 50 working papers, such as Acute Coronary Syndromes and the surgical interventions, Congenital Heart Diseases, Cardiac Arrhythmias, and Cardiac Emergencies.
Furthermore, the conference was preceded by three workshops on Electrocardiography (ECG), Echocardiography, and Cardiovascular Nursing.
The Gulf Heart Association has been organizing an annual conference to be held in one of the GCC countries alternately and the Sultanate is hosting its activities this year for the third time.
