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Reinvigorated!
The recent UN Summit on the Millennium
Development Goals ended on a positive note as
member countries agreed to step up action to
meet the anti-poverty, disease reduction and
healthcare goals by 2015. It has been 10 years
since they were initiated and the Summit came
at a good time, just when it appeared that motivation
to achieve the goals was lagging due to
the global economic recession. The Summit has
now reinvigorated the impetus to achieve the
MDGs, not least with the injection of $40 billion
pledged over the next five years specifically to
accelerate initiatives to improve the health of woman and children. Read
more about this important issue on page 28.
Middle East Health reporters, who as you know travel regularly in the
region, visited Turkey in September to look into the country’s health
tourism business, and were pleasantly surprised to find a relatively well-developed
health tourism infrastructure at select hospitals. These hospitals
have state-of-the-art equipment, well trained staff and specialised
departments for international patient services. It is early days yet, but
Turkey looks set to give some of the more established health tourism
markets a run for their money. Find the report on page 40.
One of many fascinating new developments covered this month is Berchtold’s ORICS, their Operating Room Information and
Communication System. It enables audio-video transmission of surgical
procedures to be viewed live in the OR and around the world, while
simultaneously allowing colleagues to comment and offer advice or
instructions to the team in the OR. Details on page 62. Also in this
section we look at an interesting phenomenon where some doctors are
claiming that the internet is interfering with their doctor-patient
relationship.
They say that health information on the internet is, in some
cases, changing the relationship they have with their patients and even
undermining their own credibility. You probably have your own views on
this controversial topic, so turn to page 66.
We cover a lot of ground in this issue with features on the 2010 Nobel
Prize for Medicine, new methods of funding for AIDS care, new data on
diabetes in the UAE and various technological developments that look
set to soon impact healthcare, locally and globally. And all this in addition
to interviews, news and product reviews! No wonder that Middle
East Health is still rated by doctors as by far the best (and best-read)
medical magazine in the region.
Good reading and good health
Brian Wilkie
Publisher
wilkiexp@emirates.net.ae |
(Nov-Dec 2010)
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