The Integrating Patient Safety Symposium concluded its events on Wednesday 3 June, 2009 which was organized by King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences and the National Guard Health Affairs under the patronage of the Minister of Health. Participating in it were deans from medical colleges in KSA as well as a selective group of international experts specialized in the field of medical education and patient safety.
Prof. Youssef Al Eissa, the Vice President of the Educational Affairs and the Dean of the College of Medicine, KSAU-HS gave an opening speech on behalf of Dr. Bandar Al Knawy the CEO of National Guard Health Affairs and the President of KSAU-HS where he pointed out that this conference which was held for the first time at an international level confirms the commitment of the NGHA on quality and patient safety and medical care.
Moreover, this is part of the University’s role in the field of academic health education, realizing the goals that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the Crown Prince and the Deputy Secretary II have to greatly improve the medical services and higher education. It is worth noting that the College of Medicine is one of three colleges that apply the integration of patient safety in medical curricula in the world.
Prof. Youssef added that: “We’re looking forward to complete the educational cities in Riyadh, Jeddah, Al-Ahsa, King Abduallh Specialized Hospital for Children and King Abduallah International Medical Center in the coming two years. Moreover, we plan to complete other health facilities which will enhance our ability to provide advanced health care to employees and eligible patients.” He also spoke about the expansion of higher education in the health fields and research. All these projects received the full support of His Royal Highness the Deputy of the National Guard Prince Badr bin Abdulaziz and His Royal Highness Lieutenant - General Prince Muteb bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Assistant Chief of the National Guard for Military Affairs.
Furthermore, Dr. Mohamed Al Moamary, Chairman of the Science Comity Associate and Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs, COM who is a consultant for The Patient Safety Federation, expressed his thanks and appreciation on behalf of the symposium’s organizing committee for the praise the topics had received from the sponsors and Deans from various colleges of medicine in the Kingdom. The topics included patients’ safety in health care and patient safety programs in medical curricula as well as educational methods and output. In addition, the symposium received great interest from the audience on the importance of activating these programs in medical curricula, especially those who are interested in medical education and quality and patient safety.
He mentioned that due to the University specializing in health education, the College of Medicine had received an invitation from the World Health Organization’s Patient Safety Federation in March 2008 to participate in the integration of patient safety in medical curricula. And thus it had actively participated for a whole year in preparing a modern and creative patient safety curriculum along with a number of prestigious universities, such as: the University of Monash, the University Sydney, Australia, the University of Toronto, Canada and the University of Aberdeen, Britain. KSAU-HS is proud to be the first to fully integrate this program in its curricula.
The organizing committee in an effort to distribute this approach locally, regionally and globally has launched a website that includes all the lectures and patient safety curricula on the following link (http://com.ksau-hs.edu.sa/ps ).