DUBAI // The first International Family Medicine Conference has been hailed a success in better arming primary healthcare professionals to treat chronic diseases.
Officials said interaction with top medical professionals at the conference, which ended on Tuesday and will now be an annual event, helped to equip family doctors with the latest information crucial to their practice.
“I believe it is time to have more emphasis on family medicine and primary health care and improve it in the GCC countries and the Arab world,” said Dr Tawfik Khoja, director general of the executive board of health ministers for the GCC.
“This is a great initiative that brings leaders of family medicine from around the world in one place to improve the family medicine health services.
“We shall work on improving the issue of research as without a scientific approach we can’t build a viable healthcare system. It is time for the GCC to have an evidence-based approach to build a stronger healthcare system.”
This year’s conference focused on ailments that are prevalent in the region, such as heart attacks, diabetes, obesity, back problems, asthma and allergies.
Conference themes next year may include motherhood, childhood, occupational health and rehabilitation.
Dr Shaesta Mehta, professor and consultant gastroenterologist with the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, said continuous upgrading of knowledge was imperative for family physicians.
“There should be a strong liaison between healthcare centres and hospitals so if patients develop any side effects from treatment in hospitals, they can be treated at the primary level and will not need to go back to specialists,” she said.
“If post-operative treatment, care and rehabilitation is handled at health centres, it will also reduce the economic strain on patients who worry about higher costs for specialists.”
Dr Abdul Salam Al Madani, executive director of the conference and of the Global Family Medicine Alliance, said the goal of the future conferences would be to “highlight innovative procedures and technologies, and examine current controversies in treatment”.
They would also provide “updates on the latest advances and treatment of diseases, mainly diabetes and obesity”.
Challenges in tackling asthma and allergies were addressed on the third and final day of the conference.
In the UAE, asthma affects about 10 per cent of adults and 15 per cent of children and adolescents.
“Very rarely is it picked up as an allergy, so if you have cold and cough symptoms that last more than a week, it is most likely you are allergic,” said Dr Bassam Mahboub, president of the Emirates Allergy and Respiratory Society.
“We have more young children between 5 and 10 years coming in with allergies. The number one common allergy here is to dust mites.
“Also, the general advice during a sandstorm is not to go out because it carries organic and non-organic dust that is harmful for everybody.
“But if you know your child is allergic or has asthma, then I would strongly advise against going out at all [during dust storms] because it would trigger the disease in a strong way.”
rtalwar@thenational.ae