KFMC vision for virtual hospital

Dr. Mushabbab Al Asiri, Executive Director of Medical Affairs of King Fahad Medical City talks about the pioneering surgeries and simulation centre at KFMC.

Can you mention some further specific examples of surgeries that you have pioneered in King Fahad Medical City?

Locally we have treated some fairly difficult cases, one of them is a patient who had a cord transection and he lost mobility in his lower limb and our team in spinal and orthopaedic surgery treated this patient. We are also doing a fairly complex neuro surgery procedure for brain cancer. We became the most popular brain cancer surgery destination in Saudi Arabia. We have the first inter-operative MRI that is helping our surgeons do fairly complex surgery in a way that has excellent outcomes and because we have talented surgeons and this cutting-edge technology available.

In the cancer centre we are one of the few centres in Saudi Arabia doing total body radiation and we do comprehensive cancer care. We have also begun the planning to start the bone marrow transplant program at KFMC. The children´s hospital is working on treating celiac disease, which is a rare metabolism disease, and we are working with our team to make this hospital the benchmark for celiac disease. We also have the first stroke program in Saudi Arabia that is accredited by the joint executive commission and we have the first specialised stroke team in Saudi Arabia. If a patient arrives at KFMC within 6 hours of their symptoms, they will go home as normal. We have an excellent stroke program that is unique in Saudi Arabia. The important thing is that people come to KFMC suffering and they go home smiling.

In research, we are investing a lot in our simulation centre which is a pioneering idea to have a virtual hospital. In the past when medical students, nurses or scientists embarked on their training, they were trained in an environment with patients or other staff. That sometimes can breach patient confidentiality or privacy. So we thought that we could bring this idea from aviation science where they use simulation to train the pilot and the crew and bring it to the health sector. We are now building this simulation centre to offer this kind of training in a virtual hospital. There will be an Operating Room but without a patient, there will be a CPR program but without patients.

It is not only for the health sector but also for our admin, so we have programs for administrative staff. People working in health records, people in bioinformatics etc. They can all use our simulation facility for proper training before they go live with patients. We are also working to improve the availability of medical devices in the market.

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