HMC’s Neurosciences Institute to establish more programmes

After establishing the stroke and epilepsy programmes, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is ready to set up additional programmes and bring more medical experts to serve the increasing number of patients in Qatar.Speaking on the sidelines of the first annual Qatar Neuroscience Conference, HMC Neurosciences Institute director professor Ashfaq Shuaib explained that they will also establish neuro-muscular, chronic back pain and multiple sclerosis programmes, among others, soon.“About 1,100 to 1,200 stroke cases and many epilepsy cases are handled annually at Hamad Hospital,” he said. The institute receives about 10,000 to 15,000 neurology cases on an average every year and about half of these are neurosurgical cases, according to professor Shuaib, who was the chair of neurology at the University of Alberta in Canada for 10 years.In the Mena region, professor Shuaib said HMC is the only hospital that has a Joint Commission International stroke programme accreditation. HMC also recruited the current chair of University of Alabama’s neuro-muscular programme, who is expected to arrive in the next three weeks, to be in charge of this programme in Qatar.HMC has combined neurology, neurosurgery and neuro-radiology together in one institute. It tripled the number of experts in neurology, doubled those in neuro-radiology and increased the number of neurosurgeons.Besides the current Qatari experts working in all departments of the institute, professor Shuaib said they would like to see more to be part of their team in the future.“We have the chief of neurosurgery, who has come back after training in Canada. There are three in neuro-radiology and two in neurology,” he added. “We have a fairly robust fellowship programme in neurology, neurosurgery and neuro-radiology,” the director said, adding that HMC is also creating a network of experts, three of whom have been invited to the conference.