Sheikha Moza attends discussion on precision health in clinical practice

Doha, Qatar: H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, attended a panel discussion focusing on laying the foundations for persona...

Doha, Qatar: H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, attended a panel discussion focusing on laying the foundations for personalized medicine in clinical practice, as Qatar Foundation’s Qatar Precision Health Institute was officially launched. 

The discussion at Education City, moderated by Dr. Wadha Al Muftah, Senior Director, Qatar Genome, at Qatar Precision Health Institute (QPHI), brought together experts and leaders from across Qatar’s health sector to discuss how the country’s efforts to adopt personalized medicine practices are being supported, the implementation of precision health mechanisms in clinical care, and ways of enhancing cooperation and knowledge exchange within the field of healthcare, to bridge gaps between research, practice, and clinical application. 

Among those who participated was Dr. Salha Bujassoum, Senior Medical Oncologist at Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) National Centre for Cancer Care and Research, and Assistant Chair of Precision Medicine Committee at HMC, who discussed the importance of precision health applications in the early detection of cancer.

“Tumors are one of the most common genetic diseases - 95 per cent of them constitute genetic diseases in affected organs,” she said. “Through cooperation with other scientific institutions, such as QPHI’s Qatar Biobank and the Qatar Genome Programme, we are now treating the disease before it occurs through proactive measures. “All participants in Qatar Biobank in whom genetic mutations that cause cancer were discovered were referred to us to take certain precautions to prevent contracting the disease before symptoms appear. Precision health is not only for treatment, but also for prevention.”