2009 Arab Health Awards receives record number of nominations
A record number of nominations have been received for the 2009 Arab Health Innovation and Achievement Awards organisers IIR Middle East has said. The deadline for entrants passed last week and the exhibitions company has said the competition this year is extremely strong with over 100 individuals and hospital departments being nominated.
“The Awards has become an important aspect of the overall Arab Health event,” said Simon Page, Director of Life Science Division at IIR Middle East. “To win an award is prestigious and more hospitals and organisations are now battling it out to receive acknowledgement for being the best at what they do in the region. Hence the reason we have so many nominees this year.”
The awards were created to recognise the outstanding achievements of individuals and hospitals, departments or teams that have contributed to the growth and development of the quality of the health sector in the Middle East.
Past winners have witnessed directly how an award can help develop their business.
“After winning the prestigious award we were getting calls and referrals not only from the UAE, but from other neighbouring countries in the Gulf and Middle East,” said Dr. Mohamed Hamdan, Senior Consultant & Head, Department of Pediatrics at Tawam-Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Hamdan’s department won the award for surgery last year.
“Winning the award was just the beginning. It puts us under more pressure and motivation to excel and to stay at the top. We refined our practice and adopted more techniques to tackle more challenging cases,” he added.
The awards cover eight areas of medical provision and include awards for surgery; laboratory; imaging and diagnostics; emergency medical services; quality healthcare; IT; infection control, and hospital training.
Mohsen Alabdan, Manager of the Cardiology Lab at the King Faisal Heart Institute in Saudi Arabia is delighted to be nominated for the Imaging and Diagnostics award.
“To compete in such a great event where expert people will evaluate our services in healthcare will reflect positively that we always aim to have a high standard as a healthcare provider,” he said. “I think that the Arab Health Awards is a great step towards the improvement and development of the health care sector in the Arab world. Arab Health is well recognized internationally and has reached a very high standard.”
Dr.Osama El Fayumi, Lab Director at the Saudi German Hospital in Madina Munawarh was also delighted to be in the position of scooping an award. Dr. Fayumi’s department was nominated in the Laboratory section.
“I feel it’s very important because in laboratories and blood banks it’s more or less the same department. I usually give more priorities for solid high quality in these two areas as any error is not allowed which could be incompatible with life,” he said.
“We received the offer to participate in this award from our SGH group level QPS management. This offer directed my attention to present my most important topic among any interesting clinical scientific problem or performance improvement projects in the year 2008,” he added. “Actually I am not the one who can say that my improvement project will make any impact at Arab Health. The committee of Arab Health is the one who has to decide how much impact our project has made at Arab Health 2009.”
The improvements in the quality of healthcare in the Middle East over recent years are clear to see and the Arab Health Awards is an independent endorsement of the quality of the region’s healthcare professionals, companies and organisations.
Tawam Hospital in the UAE did well at the 2008 awards, and Brian De Francesca, the hospital’s CEO was delighted with the outcome.
“It meant a lot to all of us. It was confirmation of our teams continued focus on creating the best hospital in the Middle East. It has provided our team with the motivation to continually raise our expectations higher and higher,” he said.
“We believe that we are not great when we say we are great, but when others say that we are great. We are fully dedicated to providing a great quality of care and overall patient experience and we are committed to take great care of the people on our team.”
The 2009 Arab Health Innovation and Achievement Awards will be announced at a gala dinner to be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Dubai on 28 January 2009 and will be attended by over 700 of the region’s leading healthcare professionals.
