His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, is to inaugurate on Sunday, 24th November, 2013 (corresponding to 21st Muharram, 1435 H) the Second Gulf Conference on Complementary Medicine at King Faisal Auditorium in Intercontinental Hotel, Riyadh. The conference will be held for three days under the theme: “Towards Evidence-Based Complementary Medicine” with the participation of a varied gulf, Arabian and international countries.
For his part, the Executive Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), Dr. Abdullah bin Muhammad Al-Baddah, has emphasized that this conference, which is organized by NCCAM, reflects the support and attention attached to the health services by the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, May Allah protect him. Moreover, Dr. Al-Rabeeah's auspices to the conference reflects the interest of the Ministry of Health (MOH) to the alternative medicine, as well as the MOH efforts to embrace and helps the NCCAM’s progress.
Within the same vein, Dr. Al-Baddah went on adding that the conference aims at enriching people’s knowledge of “the evidence-based complementary medicine” notion, and enhancing the positive propensity towards practicing it, meanwhile highlighting the evidence-based safety and effectiveness aspects of some of complementary medicine practices. Furthermore, he mentioned that conference underlines the evidence-based application of complementary medicine concepts in the field of training, research and the laws, issued to regulate the practitioners and products. Dr. Al-Baddah also pointed out that the conference will be accredited by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCHS), at average of 24 continuing medical educationhours.
It is worth mentioning that the program of the conference includes at its first day the opening ceremony and some sessions to discuss the global status of traditional and complementary medicine, the evidence-based integrative care models, and the patient-centered health care. While, on the second day the conference will shed light on health practices in the Muslim world and the prophetic medicine, with participation of the international expertise from Europe, Germany and Malaysia, along with systems of the traditional and complementary medicine. However, on the third day it will handle the evidence-based traditional and complementary medicine, and cupping therapy.
Finally, it should be noted that this Second Gulf Conference for Complementary Medicine is organized by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Kingdom, in collaboration with a number of agencies, such as Executive Board of the Health Minister's Council for GCC States, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCHS).