Thomsen, QDA executive chairman Dr Abdulla al-Hamaq, Dr al-Thani, Dr Mismar and Maersk Oil Communications head Paul Neil Taylor are seen at the press meet yesterday to announce the launch of the Registry.
By Noimot Olayiwola/Staff Reporter
Qatar National Diabetes Registry, a comprehensive online tool to gather data about all diabetes patients in the country, was yesterday launched by the Action on Diabetes (AoD) partners.
The registry, which is the first of its kind in Qatar modelled after a similar initiative in Italy, will make it possible to monitor, compare and share best practices across different institutions in the healthcare sector in the country and will ultimately combat the diabetes epidemic.
The launch of the nationwide registry also coincided with the marking of the two-year anniversary of the AoD and the World Diabetes Day (WDD) which was observed yesterday.
AoD partners also yesterday inaugurated a three-day Diabetes Screening Village at the Katara Cultural Village to mark the WDD 2013 and to create more awareness about diabetes.
The AoD initiative is a programme designed to help deliver Qatar’s 2030 National Vision of a healthy and prosperous nation.
The project’s aim is to support the Qatari authorities in raising awareness of diabetes, helping those at risk avoid it, and supporting people already living with diabetes manage their health better.
AoD is a partnership project between the Supreme Council of Health (SCH), Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Qatar Diabetes Association (QDA), Maersk Oil Qatar, Novo Nordisk and the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), which was officially announced as a member to the partnership yesterday.
The PHCC is expected to play a crucial role in populating the registry through its 23 primary healthcare centres throughout Qatar and in sharing the common diabetes registry with SCH, HMC and QDA.
The National Diabetes Registry will be introduced to healthcare providers countrywide as an online tool making it easy to maintain and access for all healthcare professionals.
The data contained in the National Diabetes Registry will provide the healthcare authorities with tools to monitor treatment outcomes and thus enable comparison, knowledge sharing and improvement between the different entities.
The National Diabetes Registry will speed up progress and improve treatment by providing accurately tracked and measured data. It will provide the medical care with real-time data that enables evaluation and highlights areas in need of improvement.
The registry has been funded by Maersk Oil Qatar as part of its long-term commitment to the AoD partnership.
Maersk Oil Communications head Paul Neil Taylor said that about $4-5mn has been dedicated as budget for the project, which he said will be spent on the registry plan, nursing personnel training and researches to be conducted in the years to come.
He said that the registry was being launched here after the partnership made knowledge tours to Italy and Denmark to look into best practices and the model that will be best suited to Qatar.
QDA executive chairman Dr Abdulla al-Hamaq reiterated the association’s commitment toward helping people living with diabetes saying: “We have been striving to have the registry since a long time and its launch will be important for quality management of diabetes.”
The Diabetes Screening Village, open to the public until tomorrow, will promote healthy living as well as offering free diabetes screening tests.
The village will also provide fun, interactive kids’ games and entertainment, healthy cookery lessons and fitness classes. Page 2
QDA to mark World Diabetes Day today
The Qatar Diabetes Association (QDA) will hold a Diabetes Awareness Walkathon at the Aspire Park near the Lake at 3pm today to mark the World Diabetes Day.
The World Diabetes Day is observed on November 14 and this year marked the fifth and final year of the 2009-2013 campaign on “Diabetes education and prevention”.
