Pediatric emergency care set to improve with the UAE's first pediatric simulation training course

Cambridge University Hospitals, one of the best academic healthcare organizations in the world, to offer pediatric medical training in DHCC

Dubai, January 30, 2014

Picture this: At the emergency section, a mother's frantic cries over her six year-old son gasping for breath adds immense pressure on the medical staff trying to treat the child. Breathing difficulties are one of the most common pediatric respiratory emergencies.

Such emergency scenarios will be routinely practiced in the first-ever comprehensive pediatric emergency simulation training course in the UAE.

Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), a health and wellness destination that brings together a wealth of services in healthcare, medical education and research, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cambridge University Hospitals to provide pediatric emergency training courses to medical and healthcare professionals in the UAE.

The pediatric emergency training courses are the first of a series of courses with Cambridge University Hospitals planned for 2014.

Critical events in pediatrics are less frequent than those occurring with adults, which makes being ready to successfully manage these events as important. Healthcare providers will at some point be required to manage acutely ill or injured children, however very few of them have the opportunity to practice the necessary skills during medical training or practice.

Per the MoU, academics from one of the best academic healthcare organizations in the world will conduct two different pediatric courses at DHCC's Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor Medical Simulation Center (KHMSC), the first comprehensive simulation training facility of its kind in the region located within the Mohammed Bin Rashid Academic Medical Center (MBR-AMC).

The first course, Managing Emergencies in Pediatric Anesthesia (MEPA), aims to give all anesthetic trainees the opportunity to develop management strategies for emergencies in pediatric anesthesia. The second course, MAnaGing Ill Children (MAGIC), covers more common pediatric and neonatal emergencies through the use of high fidelity simulation.

Marwan Abedin, Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Healthcare City commented: “While both theoretical and practical skills are important aspects of medical training, training for independent decision making especially during emergencies is as critical yet not as common. Moreover, it is rarely possible to train medical professionals on the management of the severely ill as not only are such patients scarce but naturally they are even more in need of an experienced physician. The training becomes even more difficult when the patient is a child.

“We at DHCC believe that medical and healthcare professionals should have training alternatives at their fingertips and this is why we are proud to expand our simulation training courses available at MBR-AMC with the addition of the first-ever pediatric emergency simulation training in the UAE. We are also very proud that this training will be conducted by the University of Cambridge, one of the world's most respected universities.”

Dr Keith McNeil, Chief Executive Officer, Cambridge University Hospitals, said, “We look forward to transferring pediatric care knowledge via clinical simulation. When medical professionals work with a simulation mannequin that responds to interventions in real-time, he or she acquires diagnostic skills and practices medical procedures before treating patients. A range of simulation scenarios with varying complexity can be taught through simulation. After the training, medical staff is more confident and better trained, thus enhancing safety and quality of clinical services delivered to young people. This improves outcomes and will ultimately save young lives.”