The Ministry of Health and Prevention, MoHAP, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Janssen, one of the pharmaceutical companies of Johnson & Johnson to raise community awareness about Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), bolster the medical education for health practitioners, and develop effective patient support programs.
Under this agreement, the necessary support for IBD-related activities will be provided, in addition to enhance cooperation in carrying out patient support programs, by launching digital applications and educational channels for patients, and the cooperation to release guidelines on how to deal with IBD patients.
The MoU was signed at MoHAP headquarters by H.E. Dr. Youssif Al Serkal, Assistant Undersecretary for the Ministry’s Hospitals Sector and Vishnu Kalra, Regional Executive Director at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, in the presence of HE Excellency Awadh Al Ketbi the Assistant Undersecretary for Support Services and Dr. Kalthoom Al Belooshi, Director of MoHAP’s Hospitals department from the Ministry side and Luis Diaz Rubio- Managing Director Emerging Markets from Janssen side .
Enhancing Partnerships Pours in the Interest of Patients
Dr. Youssif Al Serkal pointed out that the MoU aims to achieve highest levels of awareness about the IBD and its complications and provide society with the essential knowledge for the prevention of this disease, as well as to provide advanced training for specialists, explaining that the agreement is part of MoHAP’s ambitious plans to provide advanced levels of healthcare through holding partnerships with international medical and pharmaceutical companies.
“We are confident that the implementation of this agreement would help improve IBD treatment through the utilization of smart apps and educational platforms for patients, and the cooperation to release specific guideline on how to deal with IBD patients in line with the best international practices,” added Al Serkal.
Constant Upgrade for Therapeutic Protocols
“The Hospitals Sector is keen on fostering the efficiency of health facilities, therapeutic protocols, and the specialized medical cadres to provide innovative health services and conduct periodical reviews for the performance and services in the healthcare sector. This falls within MoHAP’s strategy to reinforce society health through the provision of world-class holistic and innovative healthcare services,” he noted.
Concluding his remarks, Al Serkal stated that MoHAP continues to develop health services and strengthen patients’ satisfaction, stressing that the Ministry’s plans, programs, and initiatives are underway to leverage the smart technologies in order to build up quality systems, therapeutic, health and pharmaceutical safety as par the approved practices.
Outstanding outcomes have been achieved in many of the operational indicators including; increase the number of hospital beds, reduce patient’s waiting time, increase number of successful surgeries, add specialized clinics at hospitals, and introduce medical subspecialties such as Neurosurgery, Neonatal, genetic diseases, reconstructive plastic surgery, robotic surgery, and others.
Ongoing Partnership
For his part, the Managing Director at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Vishnu Kalra, said: “We are pleased to continue our partnership with MoHAP in a number of awareness and therapeutic programs for the health/wellbeing of patients in the UAE. We hope this MoU would help achieve our mutual goals towards enhancing awareness about IBD and bolstering the medical education for health practitioners, as part of the joint cooperation and coordination between the sides to upgrade patient support programs in the UAE.”