This year’s Congress focused on Pediatric Precision Medicine led by a cohort of Sidra Medicine specialists across a broad spectrum of disciplines
26 November 2019, Doha, Qatar- Sidra Medicine today wrapped-up the 3rd Annual Congress of Current Understanding in Diabetes, Obesity, and Related Syndromes (CUDOS), with a main focus on pediatric precision medicine.
Day three of the Congress featured sessions on genomic and drug intervention, behavioral medicine and psychology and precision medicine in neurocritical care. The sessions were led by Sidra Medicine specialists from a broad spectrum of disciplines including pulmonology, neurology, adolescent medicine, oncology and human genetics to name a few.
The last day of the congress featured opening keynote speech by Professor Hakon Hakonarson, Director of the Center for Applied Genomics at the Joseph Stokes Jr. Research Institute of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).
Key sessions at Day Three included:
- ‘Genomic and Drug Intervention’ and how recent paradigms through which complex data might enhance our understanding of diabetes and ultimately our ability to tackle the disease more effectively than ever before.
- “Infant of Diabetic Mother” about identifying the risk factors of reproductive health and type 1 diabetes and how they can help make risk management possible and prevent health problems in the future.
- ‘Behavioral Medicine and Psychology’ which highlighted the importance of understanding the effectiveness of diabetes education and self-management approaches for children. A concept, which should be part of routine therapy for all patients with type 1 diabetes
Running in parallel to the congress, a symposium was hosted by Sidra Medicine and led by Dr. Khalid Fakhro, Acting Chief Research Officer, Director of the Precision Medicine Program and Head of Human Genetics department, Sidra Medicine. The precision medicine symposia looked at current on the ground clinical and research programs at Sidra Medicine.
Dr. Khalid Fakhro said: “We have the best physicians and practitioners in the clinics, researchers and scientists in the labs and some of the most advanced technologies to power our hospital as well as our research and clinical programs. This unique combination, which underpins our three pillars of patient care; research and medical education have allowed us to start groundbreaking studies and clinical care services that will positively impact the health of the women and children of Qatar. The impact that we hope to create is far reaching not only for the people of Qatar but across the Middle East region and the world.”
Prof. Ibrahim Janahi, Chair of Medical Education at Sidra Medicine said: “We are thrilled with the outcomes of CUDOS 2019 in its third edition. Conferences like CUDOS present a great opportunity to build a bridge for linking clinical, research and medical education amongst the best practitioners from around the world.”
Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Former President of Global Research & Development at Sanofi and Member of the Board of Governors at Sidra Medicine, said: “The Congress is an excellent learning experience for specialists and practitioners. Precision Medicine is emerging as an important topic in medicine. It is based on finding the right treatment, for the right patient at the right time. To do that, we really need to have research identifying different patients and to have a combination of research and clinical care coming together, to be able to best fit the treatment with the needs of the patient.”
CUDOS 2019 has been accredited as a Group Learning Activity (Category 1) for 46 hours by the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners.
Read the Arabic press release here.
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