The list of health related events in Jeddah is growing constantly, with more and more of these events held and even more to come. From conferences to symposiums, titles vary and so does the content, but the idea is the same. Latest of these events was the Neurological Emergencies Symposium, which was held in King Abdulaziz University, Thursday. Dr. Hussein Al-Qahtani, Chief of Neurology in King Khaled National Guard Hospital in Jeddah says that this state of hyper-activity in the medical society is actually an attempt to elevate awareness of health care providers, assisting them in early diagnosis of cases, before the arousal of any complications. “Conferences will also update practitioners' information with the latest findings in their fields of specialty, which is why we need to arrange for even more similar events and keep an eye on the progresses taking place in countries that are ahead of us scientifically,” says Dr. Al-Qahtani, who supervised the preparations for the neurological symposium. Dr. Al-Qahtani also believes that these gatherings will increase the efficiency of health care providers and help in reducing the damages caused by late diagnosis and medical misconduct. Yehya Seddeq, member of the Symposium's Organizing Committee said that these conferences are the result of cooperation between health care providers, professors and students, who take on the task of preparing the arrangements. “These events attract large numbers of attendants, who see in these events a chance to contact with experts, in addition to gaining experience of their own in preparing and presenting conferences,” Seddeq said. However, events like these and the huge crowd they attract, might indicate that certain branches of science are not covered sufficiently in medical faculties. Seddeq explains that this deficiency is why most students don't like to miss the chance of attending any medical event, and that can be the reason why more and more events are being organized, especially that students play a cardinal role in the organization of such events. Dr. Waleed Hafiz, Member of the Symposium's Executive Committee said that such gatherings are important for both students and general practitioners, since they usually contain a round up of all medical updates in a given period, presented all together in one place and one time. “Every day medical facts are reviewed and renewed” says Dr. Hafiz “with almost 17 to 18 scientific updates issued every day, it's quite hard to keep track of what's going on and what has changed” Dr Hafiz says, adding that these events will guarantee better medical services in the Kingdom by elevating the professional level of health care providers. __
