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Hamad Medical Corporation, the strategic partner of The South West Asian Chapter (SWAC) of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO), is hosting its 4th Annual ELSO-SWAC Conference in Qatar. The conference, which began yesterday and will conclude on 18 February, is being held under the theme, “Bringing ECMO Simulation to Life.”
ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) provides both cardiac and respiratory support to people whose heart and lungs are not able to provide an adequate amount of gas exchange to the body. It works by removing blood from the body and artificially removing the carbon dioxide and oxygenating red blood cells.
The machine element of ECMO acts as the lungs or heart, ensuring the body gets enough oxygen by circulating the blood outside of the body while the patient is undergoing treatment or recovering from serious injuries.
ECMO is a rapidly evolving technique, supported by an ever-increasing body of knowledge and technology. To some extent, and due to the extending range of its application, it is still an art form which requires constant attention and exchanges between its practitioners. HMC is one of the few healthcare systems in the Middle East region to use ECMO.
The conference, which is chaired by Dr. Ibrahim Fawzy, Director of HMC Critical Care and ECMO Program Director and the Chairman of Simulation and Education for SWAC ELSO, attracts around 600 delegates from all over the world along with a host of international speakers. It covers a range of ECMO subjects such as ECMO Transport and Aeromedical Retrieval, Management on an ECLS Patient – ECMO Interaction and Live Simulation Scenarios including ECMO Cannulation.
Dr. Ibrahim Fawzy said, “SWAC ELSO is transforming the way we operate to continuously improve our ability to face the specific challenges and opportunities of fast growing demographics, as well as faster growing healthcare expectations. We have continued to meet the challenges of our field and to excel. We should all be very proud of where we are today and excited about where we are heading. I am delighted, as Director of Critical Care and HMC’s ECMO Program Director, that HMC is the strategic partner to the conference and that it is being hosted in the State of Qatar.”
Professor Robert Bartlett, the ‘founder’ of ECMO, will be recognized during the event for his significant contribution to developing the ECMO therapy to the next level.
The ECMO system is currently only available in a few centers around the world and requires a fully integrated and dedicated team of highly trained clinicians to carry out high risk procedures with care delivered by clinicians 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
