Doha - November 8, 2023: Hamad Medical Corporation’s Tobacco Control Center, an accredited Center by the World Health Organization, organized a training workshop to enhance the capabilities of healthcare professionals in treating tobacco addiction and reducing the prevalence of smoking in the state of Qatar.
The workshop aimed to strengthen the efforts to combat smoking in the country and reduce the harmful impact of this phenomenon on society. The training workshop was specifically dedicated to healthcare professionals from HMC, Primary Health Care Corporation, Naufar Center, Qatar Red Crescent, the Medical Services Department of the Ministry of Defense, and Qatar Cancer Society. Additionally, the workshop was attended by participants from Saudi Arabia and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The workshop program, held from November 6 to November 8 at the Sheraton Doha Resort and Convention Center, focused on enhancing participants' abilities to deal with various cases of tobacco addiction and its treatment.
Key figures attending the workshop included Dr. Ahmed Al Mohammad, Deputy Medical Director for Medical Services at HMC, and Dr. Riyana Bou Haka, the representative of the World Health Organization in Qatar.
Lectures during the workshop were delivered by experts in the field, including Dr. Dong Bo Fu from the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative, Dr. Ghadeer Al-Jayousi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health at Qatar University, and members of the Tobacco Control Center, including Dr. Ahmad Al Mulla, Director of the Tobacco Control Center, Dr. Ahmad Abdullah, a tobacco control specialist, and Dr. Ashour Ibrahim, a psychologist at the center.
Dr. Ahmad Al Mulla emphasized that the goal of the workshop was to provide participants with the scientific knowledge and skills necessary to enable them to effectively contribute to combating smoking in the community and assist their patients in quitting.
The workshop program was built on comprehensive scientific foundations, relying on established evidence, and included a series of lectures, presentations, scientific explanations, exercises, case studies, and discussion sessions.
Dr. Ahmad Al Mulla stressed the importance of building and enhancing the capabilities of the healthcare team in the field of tobacco control to provide high quality care for tobacco addiction treatment in all medical centers and institutions in Qatar. He also emphasized the critical role of the healthcare team in educating the community about the harmful effects of tobacco use and its products.
Dr. Ahmad Al Mulla further highlighted the importance of conducting more workshops throughout the year to enhance the capabilities of a larger number of healthcare professionals, including those in private healthcare institutions in the near future.
