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- 1Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Director, Primary Care Clerkship, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Qatar Foundation - Education City, P.O. Box 24144, Doha, Qatar [1]
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- 4Associate Professor of Healthcare Policy and Research and Director of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Biomathematics Research Core, Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group, Department of Healthcare Policy and Research, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Qatar Foundation - Education City, P.O. Box 24144, Doha, Qatar [1]
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Impact on the Physician - A Signature Reflection Dealing with Death
Home visits on patients require checks for the request the illness the date last seen current medications and who the carer is. Globally especially in the Middle East cultural awareness and sensitivity are paramount particularly in palliative care. Family physicians care for terminally ill patients. Often in the last stages fatigued dyspneic anemic cachectic relatively anorexic a patient’s mind may still be needle-sharp. Sincere empathy should never be standardized. Questions should be answered truthfully. No two caring moments are the same making each interaction unique. In palliative care the quality of physician conversations can assume wide empathetic dimensions.
Training in family medicine while thorough usually provides lighter exposure to cancer patients. The first serious cancer death experience can be stressful for the carer. However responsibility for palliative care is a reality. There is no respite. In family practice deaths from cancer are common. Some bête-noirs include multiple myeloma ovarian lung and breast cancer. Intrinsic patient conversations occur after each diagnosis at the beginning in between and in palliation. What vital information needs relaying by the physician? How much is shared with spouses or family relatives with consent? What impact does that make on both the patient and physician?
Patient self-awareness being near death in terminal illness is common. It is still unsettling. A physician of care considers the choice of a dying patient choosing to stay home. The gain is avoiding moving to a hospital or a hospice in unfamiliar settings. More poignantly it enables loving care from one’s lifetime partner and family at home.
After death an exchange of warm words with facial expressions evokes everyone’s emotions. Personal feelings resonate in care empathy hope truth trust and professional respect for one another. The end feels more like losing a friend. Such patients are not forgotten; physicians learn from them.
The dead do not suffer pain only those left behind. Is healing ever complete when looking after sick patients for the practicing physician grappling with professional and personal emotions? How long does that take? Do multiple deaths cumulate the impact? Recovery is part of being resilient critical in the profession and feeling vocational compassion satisfaction in work. What if one does not always cope adequately? Is compassion fatigue a danger? Who tends for the wounded carer? When is physician resilience needed most? What keeps physicians motivated? How do they care for themselves and stay well-balanced? Reflections on practice experiences keep life in perspective. Dying patients subconsciously are often our best teachers.
Patient- and family-centered care in Qatar: A primary care perspective
Healthcare policies in Qatar place a high value on the concept of patient and family-centered care (PFCC) in primary care. The Institute of Medicine raised the concern of patient care in 2001 and Davis et al. advocates of PFCC promoted the concept. The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar provide all the government health services of the country at this time. They have sought to integrate PFCC into its systems while preserving the traditional Qatari way of life. Families in times past were excluded from healthcare involvement as medical specialization progressed but the undervalued importance of families contributing to healthcare was later realized. Twenty-one established health centers in 2013 are to be augmented by thirty more within five years. By 2011 all Qatar's major hospitals and its Ambulance Service had achieved JCI accreditation. Entitlement to government healthcare is free for Qatari nationals or at a small charge for expatriates who maintain a valid health card. Patients have access to a physician at health centers but have to be referred for hospital consultant appointments. A range of services is available including a pharmacy at every health center. A Charter of Patient Family and Children's Rights is in place for HMC supporting family participation in care. The Center for Health Care Improvement (CHCI) was launched in 2008 and focuses on PFCC. Eight core objectives of the CHCI are outlined. Effective patient education with the adoption of sound healthcare policies and fiscal responsibility should help Qatar attain the goals it requires.
Organ donation and transplantation: A gender perspective and awareness survey in Qatar
Organ transplantation in the Middle East and North Africa has evolved to serve two major needs. The first is to sustain life where severe disease or disorders would mean death without organ replacement as in congenital heart disease. The second need is to provide cost-effective treatment and a quality of life without constant tertiary care and maintenance treatment. Renal transplantation caused by chronic kidney disease and failure is one such example. Qatar in the Middle East and North Africa is one of six countries comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the Arabian Gulf Region which has developed an active transplant program. It has one main challenge as other global nations namely a disparity between organ availability and need or supply and demand. A survey of university students' and employees' awareness of organ transplantation and donation was completed in 2013 at Education City Doha Qatar. Three hundred out of four hundred surveys were returned or 75% of the total distributed. A literature review was carried out and comparisons made to the subsequent findings. Participants comprised 89% students and 11% employees.
Of the participants 90.6% were aware that donated organs were potentially life saving and 72.7% knew about brain death. While most figures seemed comparable to other regional results two significantly new findings emerged. More females (62.3%) than males (47.1%) believed that Islam supported organ donation and 72.4% believed that there was no conflict between their faith and organ donation. Awareness campaigns and use of social media were thought to be the most effective way of disseminating organ donation knowledge.
The Medical and Health Humanities in the Middle East: Report on the Meeting of the 2nd International Conference on the Medical Humanities in the Middle East (online) in Doha, Qatar
On April 9 and 10 2022 over 79 scholars and 230 attendees met online to share their research on the health and medical humanities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at the 2nd International Conference on the Medical Humanities in the Middle East (online). This meeting was the second convening of experts since the successful 2018 in-person conference in Doha Qatar at the Sheraton Hotel. The 2022 conference was jointly sponsored by VCUArts Qatar and Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar and was convened by Drs. Alan Weber Byrad Yyelland and Mohamud Verjee. The diversity and increase in submissions from 2018 to 2022 testify to the growing importance of humanism in medicine in the region. The published abstracts in this special issue of QScience Connect provide a comprehensive overview of the medical and health humanities as they are currently practiced and researched in the Middle East region. For example the first keynote speech “Is the Beauty Industry a Virus Invading the Medical Profession?” by Iraqi surgeon and visual artist Dr. Ala Bashir addressed a critical issue in the region the growing popularity of cosmetic surgery and the unlicensed and unregulated nature of the industry.
The second keynote speech by health humanities professor Paul Crawford (University of Nottingham) entitled “Towards Creative Public Health: The Contribution of the Medical and Health Humanities” provided an overview of recent international initiatives to harness the arts for health education healing and wellness. The other presentations from researchers in Kuwait UK Jordan US Turkey Israel Iran Qatar Iraq UAE India and Egypt represented the full range of the medical and health humanities that are developing internationally including the history of medicine medical sociology and anthropology narrative medicine literature and medicine graphic medicine healthcare communications art therapy the visual arts film and medicine and medical ethics. In addition a panel of premedical and medical students led by Maryam Arabi and Abdallah Tom provided their perspectives on the topic with respect to the educational needs of students. A group of gerontology experts composed of Mark Clarfield Regina Roller-Wirnsberger and Desmond O'Neill directed a workshop on publishing research on the health and medical humanities in scientific scholarly journals. Authors Shahd Alshammari and Robin Fetherston gave dramatic readings from their fiction and non-fiction works. Three posters published on the website added to the oral presentations (https://qatar-weill.cornell.edu/event/medical-humanities-in-the-middle-east/posters).
Three of the oral presentations spoke to ethics in medical humanities within the Middle East. Banu Buruk and Berna Arda shared the Turkish National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (TNAIS) report which describes methods for determining and initiating national priorities related to AI. This report identifies four ethical values and eight ethical principles worthy of examination since almost one in five AI strategies are applied in the health sciences. The authors discussed TNAIS and concomitant ethical issues concluding with recommendations for dealing with conflicts as they arise. Alya Al Shakaki then presented on ethical questions related to use of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 which enables “designer babies”. CRISPR has been used in China to create babies that are immune to HIV and thereby able to create offspring with similar immunities; however what happens to individual autonomy in such cases? Scholars of Islamic bioethics ask two questions: which cells will be edited and what is the aim of the editing? Editing confined to one individual without affecting the offspring is considered acceptable but human dignity must be protected. Fahad Ahmed Yazgı Beriy Altun Güzelderen and Sefik Yurdakul shared their research on publications written by Turkish authors that have been retracted from scientific journals. In a study of PubMEd Scopus and Web of Science databases they identified 147 publications that had been removed due to duplication and irrelevant studies.
Six presentations were related to the history of medicine in the Middle East. Dmitry Balalykin tied the apodictic method (the method of rational and rigorous proof) typically accepted as the method of knowledge in the natural sciences to the development of medicine as seen in anatomical dissections clinical systematization and general pathology in Greek and medieval Islamic medicine. Balalykin cited Galen and Muhammad ibn Zakariya as pivotal influences. Katarzyna Gromek then discussed the history of perfumes as medical agents in early Islamic states; for example scenting clothes mostly undergarments shirts dresses and bed linens was also thought to increase therapeutic health effects both in the sick and healthy. Fatima Saadatmand continued the historical discussion with a look at mystical applications of arithmetic Ariṯmāṭῑqῑ in Arabic in treating disease throughout the 9th to 13th centuries through an examination of ancient texts and modern writings.
Abdulnaser Kaadan’s historical research moves us into the writings of Avicenna (Ibn Sina) related to the diagnosis and treatment of breast lesions and the relevance of this historical work to current medicine. Amanda Caterina Leong then shared her work on the writings of Qajar Iranian Princess Taj al-Saltana in 19th century Iran who discussed systemic challenges in reactions to Iran’s cholera epidemic and subsequent health care perils related to a corrupt patriarchy. Leong connected this work to current governmental handlings of COVID-19 issues. Finally Forozan Falahatpishe examined the invisibility of autopsy within Islamic medicine. Of interest to mystics theologians and philosophers as well as physicians the autopsy has been historically avoided within the Avestan (ancient Iranian) approach to Islamic medicine because it has been perceived as a violation against the sanctity of the human body. Nevertheless surgery has thrived within the Islamic world.
Art therapy in the Gulf was well represented by two full panels one of which presented by Trish Bedford Mowafa Househ and Dr. Jens Schneider surveyed current art therapy practices including development of an art therapy app for making initial assessments powered by AI. In addition Michelle Dixon Natalia Gómez Carlier Sara Powell Mariam El-Halawani and Alan Weber detailed in the paper "Art Therapy Service Provision during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)" how services provision shifted abruptly to online telehealth. Natalia Gómez Carlier and Sara Powell additionally reported on their art therapy pilot dyadic (parent/caregiver and child) telemedicine program for children living with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
In a panel dedicated to healthcare communications one paper described the best practices in communication skills with visually impaired patients (Dr. Nahla Khalaf Ali Dr. Abdulsalam S. Sultan Muna Hameed Faris Muna Muneer Ahmed Mohammed Modar Hameed and Dr. Marab younis Abdullah Al-Fathy). A paper by Raji Anand and Dr. Sohaila Cheema included usage data that demonstrated that digital tools such as Mailchimp direct-mail campaigns can effectively promote positive public health behaviors. Another successful intervention for public health awareness was described in the panel "On Film and Medicine: Reflections on ‘Medfest Egypt’ an international ‘film for health’ forum" chaired by Khalid Ali Mina El Naggar and Robert Abrams.
Gatherings such as the 2nd International Conference on the Medical Humanities in the Middle East are designed to share the latest research findings among area experts to help form new research collaborations and to encourage translational medicine projects in which insights and pilot and full-scale studies of the medical and health humanities can be harnessed to revise medical education curricula improve training for health sciences students enhance clinical practice and ultimately improve patient outcomes to create more equitable satisfying and effective healthcare systems. Additionally medical and health experiences can form the basis of artistic expression since health disease and illness represent key milestones in the universal life course.
Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Football
Background: Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is defined as the abrupt loss of heart function as an occurrence without physical contact (absent commotio cordis). SCA's morbidity ratio is 1:50000 of all deaths. The published estimates on SCA suggest that 11% of all victims have a normal heart. Current screening investigations include electrocardiography (ECG) echography 24-hour ECG monitoring eliciting stress history and cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Some cardiac pathologies screened have never been detected. Athletes who experienced SCA had a survival rate of 50-60% over 30-days and this rate might reach up to 80-89% in some cohort studies. The survival factors are based on regular and thorough screening checks and better observation that enables quicker pickups. Players vary in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) performance and are emotionally involved as was reported recently with footballer Christian Eriksen in the 2021 European Championship1. However anyone trained in CPR not just medical professionals can assist in resuscitation (Figure 1). Evidence-based studies show that Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS) is more effective on the sports field than Advanced Cardiac Life Support2. The objective of this literature review is to make recommendations to effectively respond to SCA during football tournaments. Methods: PubMed database was used to retrieve articles published in English between 2018 and 2021 related to SCA during football games. Results: There are limited publications in this specific domain. Reports from 67 countries account for 617 players (mean age 34 ± 16 years 96% men) suffering from SCA or traumatic sudden death during football activities between 2014 - 2018 of whom 142 players (23%) survived1. CPR resulted in a survival rate of 85% with the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) compared to 35% without. Conclusion: Key recommendations from this literature review are listed in Table 1. These are important steps needed to improve survival chance from SCA3. Qatar hosting the Football World Cup 2022 can put in place additional measures to promote effective SCA resuscitation and ensure the safety of all players.
Core Interprofessional Education (IPE) health competencies: The process of adaptation and implementation for a local environment
IPE: Interprofessional Healthcare Education (IPE) competencies provide the criteria against which to measure the capacity and capability of fully collaborative healthcare teams to learn and work together. Significant work already exists in the determination of IPE competencies across all disciplines. Although there is still a lack of agreement on a single set of shared core competencies successive competency iterations enhance its development. IPE competencies need to take into account local and cultural contexts as recommended by WHO (2010). Here we present a collaborative process that builds on existing competency development assessing additional academic IPE needs. Core competencies: After the development of a set of shared core IPE competencies a two-day workshop was delivered to healthcare students from four professions. The results and feedback from students showed the value of the competencies. We discuss the evolving process through two major stages: (1) development of a model determining four shared core IPE domains (2) the development and delivery of a set of IPE workshops explicitly and intentionally based on the model. This process is an example for the future development of IPE and IPP in any local setting. Results: Testing the developed IPE in specific workshops revealed that most clinical scenarios were on a similar standard but also showed a deficit in collaborative patient centered care an aspect suggestive of deficient interprofessional contact and prioritization.