15 November 2010
Kuwait Director General of Diabetes Institute visits Ninewells
The Director General of Kuwait's world-renowned Dasman Diabetes Institute is visiting Ninewells Hospital
and Medical School this week following the signing of an agreement to develop new international
collaborations in diabetes research.
Dr Kazem Behbehani's visit follows on from links between Kuwait and Tayside’s internationally recognised network of diabetes research and care being strengthened by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) being signed last month by NHS Tayside, the University of Dundee, Aridhia Informatics, the Dasman Diabetes Institute and the Ministry of Health in Kuwait.
Dr Behbehani is a recognised leader in global health and former Assistant Director General of the World Health Organisation. His visit will involve a tour of the Clinical Research Centre, Strathmore Diabetes Centre, College of Life Sciences and the Clinical Skills Centre.
The MoU will allow all partners to further explore opportunities to jointly develop education, clinical networks and informatics proposals linked to improving health care in Kuwait, with an initial focus on diabetes.
Diabetes is a significant problem in Kuwait, where it has been estimated that up to 1 in 4 of the adult population suffers from the disease. This equates to almost 700,000 Kuwaitis.
Professor of Medicine Andrew Morris welcomed Dr Behbehani's visit, saying, 'This is an extremely exciting venture that is moving very fast. We are looking forward to sharing best practice with our colleagues from Kuwait, as Tayside further heightens its international reputation for diabetes treatment and research, which consistently result in better outcomes for patients with diabetes.'
A clinical steering group has also already been established in Kuwait by the partners with the intent of developing plans to implement a range of educational, clinical network and informatics proposals.
These include:
- A Kuwaiti implementation of clinical network built upon quality improvement methodology (led by NHS Tayside)
- Quality Improvement collaboration (led by NHS Tayside)
- An international programme on education (led by the University of Dundee)
- A chronic disease clinical information system for the whole of Kuwait (led by Aridhia Informatics)
- A research programme looking at population genetics and epidemiology (led by the University of Dundee).
The Dasman Diabetes Institute is a world-class facility that was endowed to Kuwait by the Emir in 2005. Its mission statement is 'to prevent, control, and mitigate the impact of diabetes and other chronic conditions in Kuwait, through effective programmes of research, training, education and health promotion and thereby improve quality of life in the population.'
Notes to editors:
About NHS Tayside:
NHS Tayside is responsible for meeting the health needs of nearly 397,000 people living in Tayside. They employ around 14,000 staff with an annual budget of more than £750 million which works out at around £2million spent on healthcare services every day.
NHS Tayside is internationally recognised as a centre of excellence in many areas of healthcare working closely with the University of Dundee
About the University of Dundee:
The University of Dundee has been hailed as a 'world-leading centre' for research into diabetes and is home to the Dundee Diabetes Research Centre, which hosts over 25 research teams engaged in diabetes research, ranging from the study of single molecules to complex clinical studies.
The University has a top-rated medical school with research expanding from 'the cell to the clinic to the community',
while the College of Life Sciences is home to some of the world’s most cited scientists and home to
800 research staff from 60 different countries. See www.dundee.ac.uk for further details.
About Aridhia Informatics:
Aridhia Informatics was formed as a unique joint venture in early 2008 with NHS Tayside, the University of Dundee and Sumerian as partners and shareholders. Aridhia now employs a team recruited from both industrial and academic backgrounds.
This combination of clinical know-how and academic excellence, together with extensive industrial
experience in high performance computing provides unique insights into new approaches to health care
delivery. www.aridhia.com.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277 |
