Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press Publishes Proceedings from Qatar’s First Critical Care Conference

Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press) recently published the proceedings from the first ever Qatar Critical Care Conference (QCCC) on their Open Access platform, QScience.com. The conference, held from 28–31 October, 2019 and hosted by Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), featured expert-led workshops and lectures on topics of critical care by world-renowned researchers and doctors from around the globe

“The publication of the first Qatar Critical Care Conference proceedings on QScience.com is sure to increase the international awareness and dissemination of the cutting-edge research presented at the four-day event,” noted Saffiyah Al-Nuaimi, Journals Publisher at HBKU Press. “QScience.com reaches a wide range of audiences, both local and global, allowing for the development and expansion of scholarship and research on an international level.”

The proceedings are published in the Qatar Medical Journal, found on QScience.com. The journals on the site, including QMJ, are often indexed on globally recognized platforms such as PubMed Central, Scopus, and Google Scholar.

The inaugural event of the Qatar Critical Care Society (QCCS), hosted at the Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel and chaired by Dr. Ibrahim Fawzy Hassan, Director of Critical Care at HMC and Founding President of the QCCS, featured pre-conference workshops, lectures, panel discussions, and poster sessions attracting nearly 800 medical experts and speakers from around the world.

The term “critical care” refers to patients that are in a medically life-threatening condition and are in need of constant monitoring and care, which encompasses many types of illnesses. The QCCC proceedings in the QMJ special issue contain crucial critical care research, including research specific to Qatar, while taking note of the significant investments made to improve patient care by hospitals such as HMC.

Highlighted articles in the conference proceedings include the Critical Care Network in the State of Qatar by Majed Hijjeh, Loua Al Shaikh, et al. This article examines the Critical Care Network (CCNW) in the State of Qatar which was established in 2014 after a review of Critical Care Services at HMC. In addition to highlighting HMC’s strategic and operational delivery network, which includes 12 hospitals across the country, the article showcases Qatar’s sophisticated healthcare network that functions through a combination of strategic programs, working groups, and large multidisciplinary governance and professional development events.

Another featured article, titled Qatar National Paediatric Sepsis Program: Where are we? by authors Ahmed Labib and Rasha Ashour, discusses the design and outcome of the Qatar paediatric sepsis program to date. Sepsis and septic shock are a result of infections in the blood that can lead to death in humans, with children having the highest mortality rate upon diagnoses. The State of Qatar has implemented a nation-wide sepsis program to improve sepsis care for people residing in the country. A parallel National Paediatric Sepsis Program was developed to provide appropriate guidelines, education, a unified national care pathway, and to increase awareness of paediatric sepsis.

Guest Editor of the Qatar Medical Journal, Professor Guillaume Alinier from the HMC Ambulance Service and member of the Conference Scientific Committee, noted that HBKU Press’s publication of the conference proceedings is essential to disseminate the ideas discussed and developed during the event to a wider audience without any barriers to access.

“Thanks to HMC’s partnership with HBKU Press, we were able to publish the conference proceedings and make them accessible through Open Access,” explained Alinier. “I am pleased to know that the work presented in this special issue of QMJ will live well beyond this period of scientific gathering and remain accessible worldwide.”

The entire collection of published proceedings can be found on Qscience.com through the following link: https://www.qscience.com/content/journals/qmj/2019/2.