Under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and President of Dubai Health Authority (DHA), the 13th International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities (IAMRA) conference will take place from October 6-9 in Dubai.
DHA will host the conference in association with the 3rd Dubai Health Regulation Conference. This is the first time IAMRA is hosting a conference in the Middle East. IAMRA has 113 members from 47 countries and the organisation shares a common goal that patients should have access to highly qualified and competent medical staff.
His Excellency Humaid Al Qutami, Director General of DHA, thanked Shaikh Hamdan for his patronage and for supporting this conference.
“Regulation plays a major role in the healthcare industry,” said Al Qutami. “Healthcare regulations and standards are necessary to ensure compliance and to provide safe healthcare to every individual who accesses the system.
“At DHA, we place great emphasis on ensuring we have a robust regulatory system, which we have built with input from both the private and public health sector. Conferences provide a platform for industry experts to discuss the latest advances in the field and network with an aim to enhance existing health systems. Dubai has several key factors that make it a preferred conference hosting destination.”
Dubai emerged as one of the top ten destinations for international meetings, according to the International Meetings Statistics Report 2017, published by the Union of International Associations. The report ranked 1,157 cities globally based on the total number of international meetings that took place during the year.
Dubai was the only city in the Middle East and Africa to appear in the top 25 in the rankings, further underlining its status as the region’s number one destination for international meetings and conferences.
“This conference will help discuss key topics and emerging trends in the field,” said Dr Marwan Al Mulla, CEO of Health Regulation Sector at DHA. “It is in line with our aim to enhance existing regulatory systems to strengthen the health sector. Regulatory systems directly impact quality care provision.”
Dr Al Mulla added that with new technologies in healthcare such as blockchain, it is important for global experts to meet and discuss ways in which these technologies can improve regulatory processes and frameworks.
The conference will host more than 700 attendees and 66 international speakers from 40 countries. It will have 52 sessions, 7 workshops and present 117 abstracts.
“The world’s medical regulators and healthcare officials are excited about coming to Dubai for the 13th International Conference on Medical Regulation,” said Dr Humayun Chaudhry, Chair-Elect of (IAMRA). “This is the first time we are meeting in Dubai and we are delighted to collaborate with DHA. Outstanding experts and speakers from Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australasia are coming together to discuss timely topics such as patient safety, the role of technology in healthcare, medical education and innovation and evidence in medical regulation.”
The main theme of the conference is empowering regulation with innovation and evidence. The four sub-themes are: safe practice and quality, innovative regulation models, medical workforce and medical education.
“Dubai welcomes medical professionals from all over the world and the UAE has developed a Unified Professional Qualification Requirement system, which provides a regulatory framework to streamline requirements for licensing medical professionals,” added Dr Al Mulla. “Dubai has medical professionals from all over the world.
