Common guidelines on handling patients soon

The meeting was chaired by Professor Mansour M. Al Nozha, Vice President of the GHA, President of the Saudi Arabian Heart Association and professor of medicine and consultant cardiologist at King Khalid University Hospital and the College of Medicine, King Saud University. The meeting was attended by delegates from Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

"These guidelines, when approved and published, will advise physicians on how to handle patients and manage cases according to the most up-to-date medical knowledge published in scientific journals, what we know as evidence based medicine," Prof. Al Nozha told Khaleej Times in an interview at the end of the GHA Board meeting.

"A group of cardiovascular specialists from Gulf countries met to discuss establishing such guidelines and reviewed internationally available guidelines from the US and Europe. We aim to establish our own guidelines that take into account the unique qualities of our Gulf populations. The GHA's first meeting was held in Ajman six weeks ago," Prof. Al Nozha said.

He said that the initial draft of the GHA Guidelines should be ready in four weeks time after which they will be reviewed by the board members and will probably be finalised in two to three months time, printed and published in booklet form and distributed to hospitals around the Gulf region. The GHA has already prepared posters to distribute to hospitals in order to create awareness of the guidelines among medical practitioners.

"The guidelines will include initial assessment of patients and work up for establishing a diagnosis and will include various types of treatments recommended for different cases, from taking a patient to the cath lab for angioplasty to evaluating the need for surgery, it will cover what a doctor should do for a patient from admittance to the ER to his transfer to the coronary care unit (CCU), surgery and recovery," Prof. Al Nozha said.

He said the guidelines will also include instructions and advice given to patients to follow after recovering from a heart attack to prevent future attacks. It will include advice on life-style modifications, to stop smoking, control lipids and diabetes and advice on obesity. Prof. Al Nozha said that the guidelines will need to be reviewed and amended at least once every two years to keep up-to-date with developments in the medical field.

Professor Najeeb Al Khaja, Professor of Medicine and Cardiology, Director of Cardiology and the Cardio-thoracic Surgery Centre at Dubai Hospital, Vice Dean of Dubai Medical College, and member of the GHA Board, took part in the meeting yesterday. He said that statistically hospitals that follow common guidelines tend to be more successful and their patients have better outcomes. "In an effort to optimise the management of cardiac patients in the region suffering from acute coronary syndrome and heart attack, the GHA is aiming to produce a set of guidelines specific to our region's population, young, smokers, diabetics. The guidelines should also be compatible to the capabilities of our medical institutions," Prof. Al Khaja said.

He said the Gulf region never had such common guidelines before, now the GHA has started the process, the first step in a long process towards building up a complete set of guidelines.

"If the guideline says you have to give a certain medication for nine months rather than six, then a doctor has to comply; if the guidelines say a certain patient needs to be admitted to the cath lab then that is what a hospital has to provide, even if they have to build a cath lab," Prof. Al Khaja said.

The GHA Board meeting was sponsored by Sanofi-Synthelabo, the second largest pharmaceutical company in France.