Sidra Medical and Research Center (Sidra) has appointed Dr Khalid Alyafei as chief medical informatics officer (CMIO) and Dr Warwick Ngan Kee as the chair of Anaesthesiology.
In his capacity as the CMIO, Dr Alyafei and his team will oversee the successful and safe integration of best practice healthcare technologies within the Sidra Outpatient Clinic as well as the main hospital. 
The integration will assist physicians to provide top-quality and safe care to all patients coming to Sidra. This includes improving the efficiencies and effectiveness of medical and IT services and their functions within a hospital environment, according to a press statement from Sidra.
Dr Alyafei will be in charge of implementing an extensive health information exchange system that links Sidra with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and Primary Health Care Corporation. The system will allow physicians to review and share patient information accurately and securely and is part of the Qatar National Health Strategy to set up a single medical record system across the entire healthcare network.
“It will be my team’s responsibility to ensure that the IT and medical functions are successfully integrated across the entire spectrum of patient care services,” said Dr Alyafei, who was previously the vice-CMIO before his appointment as CMIO was confirmed in June.
Dr Alyafei is also a paediatric emergency physician and maintains an active clinical role with the Paediatric Emergency Centre at Al Sadd. He is an assistant professor in Clinical Paediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar as well as an instructor in paediatric advanced life support.  
Prior to joining Sidra, Dr Alyafei was a senior consultant with the Paediatric Emergency Centre at HMC in addition to his role as a member of the health informatics team, where he assessed vendor evaluation and selection.
Dr Ngan Kee was appointed as the chair of Anaesthesiology at Sidra in June. He joins Sidra from his previous role as professor and director of Obstetric Anaesthesia and director of Research at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he led one of the world’s top clinical research teams in obstetric anaesthesia. In addition to his role at the university, Dr Ngan Kee performed clinical duties at the Prince of Wales Hospital, a 1,500-bed tertiary referral centre covering a wide catchment area in the New Territories of Hong Kong. 
At Sidra, Dr Ngan Kee leads a diverse team of physicians, nurses and technologists who will provide a wide range of services for children and women, which includes provision of general and regional anaesthesia, pre-anaesthetic testing, postoperative pain management, and pain relief for labour and delivery.
Dr Ngan Kee said: “I am very excited to join an international team of healthcare professionals who are all committed to providing exceptional healthcare to the women and children in Qatar.”
Dr John Ferguson, chief medical officer at Sidra, added: “On behalf of the senior leadership at Sidra, I am thrilled to welcome Dr Warwick Ngan Kee on board at Sidra and to promote Dr Khalid Alyafei to his role as chief of Medical Informatics.”


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