HRH Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, President of the Arabian Gulf Program for Supporting UN Developmental Organizations (AGFUND) shall open the informative symposium on the Electronic Health Academy (EHA), which is scheduled to be held at Twaiq Palace, Embassies Quarter, Riyadh, on April 17 and 18. The symposium is organized by the Executive Office of the GCC Council of Health Ministers in cooperation with AGFUND and WHO Regional Office for Eastern Mediterranean, said Dr. Tawfeeq Khoja, the General Manager of the GCC Executive Office.
He said the symposium is convened in an endeavour to establish an international coalition between health and technology. Being one of the latest objectives of the World Health Organization, the Electronic Health Academy yielded encouraging results in Egypt, Jordan, and Iran. It is a leading new initiative for utilizing information technology in health education.
The symposium, which will be attended by experts from WHO and representatives from GCC countries, in addition to participants from private, public, charitable and communication sectors, shall cast light on the EHA project, which is based on providing basic health information to all people, regardless of gender or age. The symposium also aims to enable decision makers to obtain information on electronic based methodologies of health education, to enable health institutions to utilize the latest technologies in conveying information to students, to identify ways and techniques for establishing EHA project, to boost the strategy of merging electronic health and educational information for improving health and welfare of individuals, in addition to informing individuals on the ways of making use of electronic health services.
The symposium shall target three main areas, namely the health area, the educational area, and technological area.
The scientific program includes a paper on EHA, presented by Dr. Diana Zandi, a WHO expert from Geneva, Switzerland. Another paper shall discuss the role of EHA in supporting and integrating health education for youths, presented by Dr. Abdul Haleem Jo Khaddar, consultant of the Regional Manager of the International Organization of Health Education. Dr. Sameer Faraj from Egypt and Dr. Husain Al-Zahrani from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia shall present a paper on the EHA project in Egypt and Jordan, whereas Dr. Najeeb Shorbaji, the information systems expert at the WHO Regional Office, shall present a paper on the ways of enlightening people on the importance of electronic publishing in health education.
Finally, Dr. Khoja extended his gratitude to HRH Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud for his kind acceptance to sponsor and open the symposium. He also thanked all those who are working for EHA program for their great efforts in preparing for this important regional GCC symposium.