19 April 2016
Medical Tourism to Dubai Poised to Grow & First Dubai Core Review Course Ends on a High Note

Dubai - United Arab Emirates: The International Family Medicine Conference and Exhibition (IFM) concluded today after three days of scientific sessions, workshops, and seminars. The 3rd IFM edition witnessed great success with the participation of more than 2500 visitors and participants from all over the world. The 3rd edition of the conference has highlighted the topic of medical tourism in the city of Dubai with the goal of becoming a major international medical tourism hub as it rapidly expands its healthcare sector.

In this context, Dr. Ibtesam Al Bastaki, Conference Chairperson said: "We are striving to support medical tourism in the city of Dubai through IFM. Dubai has become a healthcare hub, with superb travel infrastructure. This helps in attracting patients from various parts of the world to receive their medical treatment within the UAE in various specialties. Therefore, the healthcare and the wellness tourism sectors are on track to grow significantly, with the expected value of CAGR to cross 12%, which is a promising figure, especially with it launching the world's first medical tourism portal (dxh.ae) to support the health tourism."

From her side, Dr. Layla Al-Marzouqi, Director of Health Regulation, DHA, said:  "Dubai has become among the top 15 in the world's and regions first medical tourism destination as per the MT Association.  Healthcare is an important sector to boost tourism, Dubai's health infrastructure has a huge potential 3000 hospitals and clinics and more than 100 nationalities of healthcare professionals.  By supporting these initiatives, we are supporting inbound tourism in Dubai."

She has also announced that the total number of Medical Tourists (MT) in 2015 was 630,833 in which 47% of them were international MT according to the data collected from 26 private hospitals in the Emirate of Dubai. 43% of the international medical tourists are from Asia, 29% are from Arab & GCC countries, 15% are from Europe and CIS, 7% are from Africa and 5% are from America.

On another note, The 1st Edition of the Dubai Core Review Course on Cardiothoracic Surgery concludes today after 4 days, in parallel to the 3rd edition of IFM Conference and Exhibition. The program provides a comprehensive review of the core information required for surgeons preparing for competency written examination to qualify to practice Cardiovascular and Thoracic surgery. The extremely comprehensive course covered numerous topics delivered over 4 days with the participation of 7 speakers. Dubai Core Review conforms to the basic curriculum in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery recommended by the Thoracic Surgery Directors' Association

The Dubai Core Review faculty had an immense wealth of expertise in cardiothoracic surgery and their delivery of the course materials was of impeccable standards by world-class speakers, namely from the USA, John Doty, M.D., Rafe Connors, M.D., William T. Caine, M.D., and Ulysse (Lee) G. McCann, M.D. - Intermountain Medical Centre, Salt Lake City, Utah and from the UK, Professor Abdallah Raweh, MD, PhD, Vice-Rector of Ludes University, Switzerland and Consultant Cardiac Surgeon in UK, Mr. Alex Shipolini FRCS (C-Th) - London Chest Hospital, Mr. Aziz Momin FRCS (C-Th) - St. George's Hospital, Mr. John Edward Pilling.

The IFM Conference and Exhibition aims at promoting the important role of family physicians who are considered the frontline of the healthcare system as they present an integrated role between primary, secondary and tertiary health care facilities, thus providing health maintenance and the preventive services to each individual including biological, behavior and social.

The International Family Medicine Conference & Exhibition was held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance and President of the Dubai Health Authority. The event is organized yearly by INDEX Conferences and Exhibitions - member of INDEX Holding. It is also supported by Ministry of Health in the UAE, Dubai Health Authority, Global Scientific Healthcare Alliance, Health Ministers Council for Gulf Cooperation Council States, International Hospital Federation, Anti-Smoking International Alliance, INDEX Healthcare Management, and Dubai Sports Council.

-Ends-

© Press Release 2016