Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in collaboration with Harvard University’s Massachusetts General Hospital, US, and University of Toronto, Canada, hosted the first Qatar Clinical Abdominal MRI Course (QCAM) 2015.
More than 200 local and regional clinical imaging professionals, including radiologists, technologists, and other allied health professionals, took part in the four-day training event.
The course focused on abdominal and pelvic MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), including image interpretation, modern MRI techniques, and updated MRI applications for hepatobiliary diseases (associated with the liver and gallbladder, bile ducts or bile), pancreatic diseases, gastro-intestinal, kidney, prostate, adrenal as well as gynaecological disorders.
Dr Adham Darweesh, QCAM course director and senior consultant and head of the Body Imaging Section at Hamad General Hospital, emphasised the importance of the course in assisting the clinical imaging department to keep up to date with the latest international standards in clinical MRI practice for body imaging and providing educational opportunities to local healthcare professionals working in the field.
He said that the learning opportunities provided by the course would help clinical imaging professionals to provide the best possible patient care, improving the overall health of Qatar’s population through state-of-the-art medical imaging services and innovative
solutions.
“The clinical MRI course included three key components: short didactic lectures covering the current topics for MRI applications linked to various diseases, comprehensive imaging pointers, and case-based discussions. These aimed to encourage audience participation and discuss possible approaches to clinical cases. Hands-on training sessions were also organised to facilitate discussions on the actual performance of the MRI exam,” Dr Darweesh said.
Dr Amal al-Rashid, fellow at HMC’s Clinical Imaging Department and QCAM course co-ordinator, said that international experts in the field of clinical imaging delivered a number of insightful lectures at the course.
The lecturers included Dr Mukesh Harisinghani, director of Abdominal MRI, and professor of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, US, and Dr Jhaveri Kartik, director of Continuing Medical Education and associate professor at the Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto.
Representatives from Primary Health Care Corporation, the private healthcare sector and some GCC medical centres also attended the course.


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