The Sixth GCC Conference hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the title (The Future of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care in the Gulf Region), synchronized by the Seventh Scientific Meeting of the Saudi Society of Family and Community Medicine, will discuss the future developments of primary health care in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The MOH Assistant Undersecretary for Manpower Preparation and Development Dr. Obeid Al-Obeid will discuss the issue in a lecture to be offered during a session chaired by the Vice Chancellor of King Saud University Prof. Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman Al-Osman. This will be followed by a session chaired by Prof. Sulaiman Al-Rawaf, where a lecture on the capabilities of information to improve the quality and safety of primary health care will be delivered by Prof. Aziz Saiekh. Dr. Ali Al-Shahri will chair the third session at which Prof. Hasan Ballah will review some distinguished examples of family medicine and primary health care.
A working paper will then follow the developments in the fields of primary health and family medicine. A number of topics will be reviewed in this session including the views of primary health doctors on periodical health checkup in KSA by Dr. Tawfeeq Khoja, the forgotten role of primary health doctors by Dr. Abdullah Al-Baddah, an Islamic perspective on health care by Dr. Mohammed Al-Bar, therapeutic education of patients by Dr. Tariq Hashim Ibrahim, caring the foot of diabetic patients by Dr. Yahia Al-Khaldi, the overall knowledge of primary health care doctors about nutrition by Dr. Abdullah Al-Zahrani.
Another working paper will review the treatment of chronic diseases in primary health care and family medicine, including the national program for detecting chronic diseases, success of obesity treatment in primary health care, the diabetic epidemics and obesity, therapeutic education, diabetic patients and primary health care in Sharijah, and improvement of hypertension through primary health care in Kuwait.
The sixth session will be chaired by Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeea, the Executive Manger of Health Affairs at the National Guard and Dr. Nabeel Al-Qurashi, the President of the Saudi Society for Family and Community Medicine. Dr. Michel Keed, the former president of the Australian Royal College of Family Medicine shall deliver a lecture on the best utilization of information technology in primary health care.
The seventh session will deal with the treatment of chronic diseases in primary health care. Discussion will include family medicine based on incentives, using clinics of chronic diseases in primary health care centers in Jeddah during 2006, the indication of body mass in adults, smoking among Sudanese doctors in Khartoum hospitals (2006), behavior of university female students in Sharijah towards natural suckling, and violence against women.
The eighth session will review a number of working papers, including using antibiotics in treating infectious diseases of the respiratory diseases, awareness of proof based medicine among medical parishioners in Al-Madeenah Al-Munawarah, evaluation of health needs in Jazan Province, risk factors and social problems associated with usage of Qat in Jazan, and the website of the Saudi Society of Family and Community Medicine.
The ninth session will look into a number of topics including the extent of using computer among primary health workers in Jeddah in 2006, application of the concept of (from disease to recovery), road accidents in UAE, and primary health services in Qatar.