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Over 3,700 doctors, nurses and allied health professionals from around the region have attended a three-day conference on patient safety and quality improvement in healthcare, which was held last weekend at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha.
Organized by Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), in collaboration with American-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), the Middle East Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare (ME Forum) featured four keynote addresses from world-renowned experts, and included over 55 interactive workshops and lectures.
H.E. Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, the Minister of Public Health was in attendance, and toured the specially designed exhibition with members of her senior management team.
“The Middle East Forum provides a fertile arena for healthcare experts and frontline staff alike to convene together and discuss practical ways in which they can refine their procedures and processes, with the ultimate goal of raising the standards of healthcare in their hospital or clinical environment,” said Mr. Ali Al-Janahi, Chief of Business Services Group at HMC.
“It was fantastic to see so many people from across the globe coming to the Forum, both to learn from what we are doing here in Qatar but also to share new innovations and join in our conversation about improving care for patients,” Mr. Al-Janahi added.
An exhibition area called the Knowledge Zone featured stands from Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute (HHQI), the Ambulance Service, the Academic Health System (AHS) and a Social Media Hub that was extremely popular with delegates.
The Ministry of Public Health participated with information submitted by the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practioners (QCHP) and the Accreditation and Licensing division. HMC’s strategic partners, including teams from Primary Health Care Corporation, Qatar University, Sidra Medical and Research Center, Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar, and the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), added to the rich diversity of information available for delegates.
IHI President and CEO, Derek Feeley, said Qatar was a leader in embracing quality improvement and patient safety movements.
“IHI has partnered with HMC for the past four years to develop the framework and embed the knowledge and thinking required to propel quality and safety improvement methodologies forward into real frontline successes,” said Feeley.
“We are deeply proud of the achievements that HMC and the public healthcare sector in general in Qatar has been able to realize along their healthcare improvement journey and the IHI looks forward to supporting the continued growth and development of Hamad’s healthcare quality improvements,” added Feeley.
Themes for this year’s conference centered on a transformative approach to improving healthcare delivery by inspiring innovation. A series of intensive pre-conference workshops on the day prior to the start of the conference included a half-day workshop on Quality Improvement Basics conducted in Arabic which was exceedingly well received by many local clinicians.
The conference was developed in accordance with the criteria set out by the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP) as a category 1 learning activity.
