Dubai: The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) won the bid to host the World Confederation of Physiotherapy Conference 2021. Competition to the bid was very tough and results were announced at the sixth Biennial Physical Therapy Conference — Physio UAE 2018, which is being held over two days in Dubai from May 2-3 under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai.
Presenting the keynote at the conference Humaid Al Qutami, chairman of the board of directors and director-general of DHA, congratulated Dubai for winning the bid. “We are witnessing rapid development and specialisation in the field of physiotherapy and rehabilitation. This field is of vital importance as it provides patients, especially young patients, an opportunity to live the best quality of life possible post an injury, trauma or stroke. It is also a field that provides the elderly, those with chronic diseases and those with certain congenital diseases an opportunity to enhance their quality of life. It helps prevent loss of productivity for the economy,” said Qutami.
The themes highlighted during the current two-day conference being held on May 2-3 is musculo-skeletal and paediatric rehabilitation, and the conference has many international speakers presenting papers quoting latest research as well as workshops.
Lower back pain most common problem today
Talking on the sidelines of the conference Dr Ali Al Shami, professor and consultant in physical therapy at the Iman Abdul Rahman Faisal University, Saudi Arabia, said lower back pain was one of the most common and pertinent issues of our times. “Bad posture, sedentary lifestyles and sitting at the desk for a long time has aggravated lower back pain in many young people,” said Al Shami.
Al Shami elaborated: “Constantly sitting for long periods in slouching positions and hunching over laptops and smart phones contributes to this pain. Educating the people about this can help as they can easily get up every 30 minutes, move and stretch and change their posture to completely avoid lower back pain.”
Amal Al Shamlan, President of the Emirates Physiotherapy Society and chairman of the conference, confirmed that the conference had received as many as 110 abstracts on various physical therapy topics from around the world this year. “We want our distinguished speakers to share their latest studies and findings in combination with their practical experiences in the conference programme and workshops in these two days.”
