National training mechanism to fight diabetes

BY PMA RASHEED

The Gulf Today, 1 Oct 2010

THE health authorities in the UAE are planning to launch a unified scientific training mechanism for doctors to alleviate the alarming prevalence of diabetes among the residents in the country.

Adopting the new realistic diabetes training method, in line with global practices and the latest developments in diabetes treatment, will change the healthcare scenario of the country, said a senior official at the Ministry of Health (MoH).

Dr Mahmood Fikri, executive director for health policies at the MoH, said, "The new strategies will emphasise on providing comprehensive training to the doctors and technical employees on performing effective practice for the prevention of diabetes on a long-term basis."

"The programme will develop the technical skills of doctors who are specialised in diabetes and endocrinology," he added.

Dr Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim, the UAE Minister for Health, said that all medical practitioners working in the hospitals under the ministry, and professionals of other healthcare centres, will be trained by a specialist team from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE).

"The in-house education and training strategies will raise the country's capability in treating cases of the non-communicable disease. Administrative and technical skills of the MoH staff diabetes specialists will be developed in diabetes prevention and endocrinology," he added.

Dr Fikri said that the AACE will select 200 doctors randomly to be distributed equally; the first group will have previous training in the treatment of diabetes while the second group did not attend any training.

"Technical performance skills and knowledge of the two groups on advanced diabetes prevention will be identified through the usage of unified scientific tools. The evaluation of the individual capabilities will be carried out in two phases," he indicated.

According to Dr Fikri, the phase one of the programme will begin in November for two days, while the phase two will commence in January 2011.

"After completion of the phase one and reviewing its results, the unified scientific training process will be established in the field of diabetes treatment in order to fill in the training needs and gaps of the evaluation process," he pointed out.

"In the phase two, the doctors will be trained on the new process to test their knowledge and practical capabilities in treating diabetes," elaborated the senior MoH official.

"The MoH trained 530 doctors from the primary health sector last year in cooperation with the AACE and Harvard College of Medicine as part of the implementation of the national programme for fighting diabetes," he noted.

"The MoH also sent 14 doctors, who were previously trained in diabetes treatment, to Cardiff University to obtain a diploma in diabetes prevention," added Dr Fikri.