Sidra Medicine and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) will jointly host the 5th Qatar-Paediatric Emergency Medicine (Q-PEM) Conference virtually from January 15-17. 
Q-PEM’s goal is to provide a high-quality, evidence-based update for healthcare practitioners involved in the urgent and emergent care of children. 
Q-PEM 2021 Conference chairman, Prof Khalid al-Ansari, who is also the chair of Emergency Medicine at Sidra Medicine, said: “Q-PEM this year promises to be a memorable one, both in the quality of scientific discourse and its impact equipping frontline healthcare providers to improving the quality of care for children with urgent and emergency health issues. It will cover the fundamentals of paediatric emergency medicine relevant to all clinicians providing emergency or urgent care to children, and also current best evidence for common and critical paediatric emergencies.”
Topics this year will range from infectious diseases, pain management, surgical emergencies, respiratory emergencies related to the care of acutely ill or injured children. 
There will also be a segment on Covid-19 and its diverse features. Other topics on the agenda include “Recognising the deteriorating child”; “Resuscitation Care: Translating Knowledge & Airway Management” and toxicology and trauma management.
Q-PEM will include presentations and insights from Sidra Medicine’s leading paediatric emergency medicine experts including Dr Barbara Blackie; Dr Amrita Sarpal; Dr Khalid Alyafei; Dr Colin V E Powell, Dr Sudhakar Adusumilli, Dr Lisa Goldsworthy, Dr Graeme Francis Hadley and Dr Kevin Enright.  
HMC experts at the conference include Dr Mohamed Alamri, Dr Bashir Ali Youssef, Dr Fatihi Toaimah, Dr Magda Barkat, Dr Mark Dimon Santos, Dr Nasser Ali A Haidar, Dr Rafah al-Sayyed, Dr Walid AbouGalala, Dr Yasser Mahmoud al-Deeb, Anan al-Badawi, Ian Ronald Howland, Kirsten Ann Uhde and Neha Mariam Babu.
“This year’s Q-PEM Conference provides a valuable opportunity for doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and support staff involved in the provision of care for paediatric patients in Qatar to come together to discuss the key topics in the field and to share best practice. HMC is committed to working with Sidra Medicine, the Ministry of Public Health, Primary Health Care Corporation and other healthcare partners to ensure children in Qatar receive the very best quality of healthcare possible,” HMC’s acting chairman of paediatrics and director of Paediatric Emergency Centres, Dr Mohamed al-Amri, said.
The conference will also feature international speakers including Dr Ian Maconochie from St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College London; Dr Sami Sulaiman al-Farsi from the Royal Hospital in Oman and Prof Franz Babl, from Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne who is also the head of emergency research at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
Q-PEM 2021 has also invited Dr Damien Roland, an experienced PEM clinician from Leicester University whose research interests include the creation and evaluation of interventions which improve the recognition of ill children in emergency and acute 
care settings.