The updated version is one of the outcomes of the ‘Heart Experts Program – Advanced Edition’.

The Ministry of Health and Prevention, MoHAP, organized the first edition of the “Heart Experts Program 2020”, which includes training in CPR skills for adults and children in an intensive and advanced course, in partnership with the American Heart Association.

The “Heart Experts Program” aims at spreading awareness in society about heart attacks and the importance of proper reaction, in this case, to raise the survival rate of those with heart attacks in the country, as per the requirements of the National Indicators of Cardiovascular Diseases included in the national agenda 2021.

The updated version is one of the outcomes of the “Heart Experts Program – Advanced Edition” which was carried out at the American University of Sharjah.

This updated version includes training of Heart Experts Program students in an intensive and advanced way after they had previously received training in general skills for CPR, in cooperation with the National Ambulance, in cooperation with the National Ambulance.

The students, at that time, underwent a rigorous practical test, after which they received certificates and licenses issued by the Training and Development Center and the American Heart Association, to apply cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in accordance with UAE law in this regard.

Dr. Mona Al Kuwari, Director of Specialized Care Department, said: “The Heart Experts Program is going according to an agenda extended to 2021, by training students in universities and schools participating in the program, to carry out community initiatives and events to spread awareness as part of the operational plan of the program outputs, to integrate students into the training team of other students in other educational institutions.”

“The total number of trainees in the Heart Experts Program increased to 35, and the total number of trainees reached 127, while the number of participants in the awareness campaign reached 95 individuals. The idea of the program is not to graduate paramedics, but to qualify the students of the program to work as ambassadors for spreading awareness,” Al Kuwari explained.

“The students are being trained to provide primary care in emergency situations, which they may be exposed to in their daily lives and streamline the arrival of ambulance teams. The current plan is to implement the program in government schools,” she concluded.

The chances of survival reduce by 10% every minute in which the CPR device or first aid is not present after the sudden cardiac arrest until the ambulance arrives; which needs a few minutes, hence the importance of training students on the use of the cardiac resuscitation (CPR) device, as this will raise chances of survival of the injured person and also it helps avoid hazardous symptoms due to sudden interruption of the blood supply to the brain.

According to WHO reports 2017, 17.9 million people worldwide die of cardiovascular disease every year, with 31% of all deaths. And that every 40 seconds, a person in the US is experiencing a heart attack, and at least 1 out of 5 heart attacks is a silent one.

Separately, the 2nd Emirates Pediatric Intensive Care Conference (EPICC) kicked off at the Ministry of Health and Prevention’s Training & Development Center (MoHAP’s Training & Development Center) in Sharjah.

The two-day event was organized by MoHAP and comes as part of its activities in the “UAE Innovation Month - February 2020”.

Under the theme “Innovation in the management of children in the intensive care unit”, the EPICC is featuring interactive lectures and presentations, in addition to reviewing developments of evidence-based medical practices, educational innovation, practical application, discussing latest innovations, trends, practical challenges and solutions adopted in the field of pediatric intensive care.

The first-of-its-kind conference was opened by Dr. Youssif Al Serkal, Assistant Undersecretary for the Ministry’s Hospitals Sector and Chairman of the Innovation Committee, in the presence of Dr. Kalthoum Al Baloushi, Director of MoHAP’s Hospitals Administration, Saqr Al-Hemeiri, Director of the Training & Development Center and Chief Innovation Officer, and a group of experts, specialists, doctors and employees of MoHAP’s relevant departments.