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Unified System to Manage
and Treat Diabetes

DUBAI — To reach out to a wider community, the Dubai Health Authority will soon establish a unified system to manage and treat diabetes at all primary healthcare centres, hospitals and clinics in the emirate.

In a country where one in four people are diagnosed with the debilitating condition, unified guidelines, especially at the primary level will play an important part in identifying the disease early on and leading to effective treatment with less health complications in the future, say experts.

The authority also plans to implement an effective referral system, establish a better diabetes database and promote advanced education on care and management of the disease.

Similar guidelines on other pressing health issues such as obesity and smoking are also being established by the authority.

The decision to set up the diabetes outreach programme is being done with cooperation of the Joslin Diabetes Centre which opened its doors in Dubai five months ago.

Qadhi Saeed Al Murooshid, director general of the authority said the system was vital to increase efficiency and detect diabetes in the early stages.

“At present, the authority is in the process of establishing common practises of treating diabetes across all hospitals and clinics,” he said.

He also highlighted the importance of training doctors at various levels in diabetes management. “Training our primary healthcare doctors in diabetes management is important. We also understand the need to reach out to our community and are working to set up clinics across different areas of Dubai that provide diabetes treatment.”

The authority is also coordinating with the Joslin centre to set up community outreach programmes to combat the condition which has a high prevalence in the region.

The centre, on the other hand, has already seen over 1,000 patients in the past five months. “The centre provides comprehensive care under one roof and since we are a referral centre, we get many patients,” said Dr Hamed Farooqi, Medical Director at the centre.

“Recently, we have set up a new early detection method through the retina scan,” he added.

Earlier this year, the authority launched an awareness and screening campaign that will run through 2010. Besides, the National Diabetes Guidelines adopted by all GCC countries, outlines that all individuals aged 30 years and above should be screened for diabetes.

Being overweight or having hypertension, high cholesterol/triglyceride level, polycystic ovarian syndrome, a family history of diabetes, previous gestational diabetes can put any individual at risk of contracting diabetes.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.ae