MUSCAT — The 8th International Scientific Conference for Medical Students of the GCC countries opened yesterday at the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) under the auspices of Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Saeedi, Minister of Health. In opening remarks, Yahya al Farsi, Dean of the College of Medicine and Health Science at SQU, thanked the university for supporting the conference and the organising committees for hosting this grand event.

He also gave a unique descriptive futuristic look of 50 years into the future of medicine. After the speech, a group of medical students performed a poetic play on medical education that ended on a note of hope and enthusiasm. The play included a video clip that showed the history of the conference since it first started in 2003 in Bahrain. Mohammad al Ghafri, Chairman of the organising committee, said the College of Medicine and SQU were looking forward to hosting the prestigious event.

The chief guest also opened an exhibition featuring stalls of various medical institutes and universities from all GCC countries. The Minister of Health congratulated medical students at SQU for organising an excellent conference. He said that the conference is important as it discusses the diseases prevalent in the GCC countries.
The first keynote address was given by Prof Dr Zakia al Lamki from the Child Health Department of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, on “Child Health Services in Oman: A Story of Success”.
In her presentation, Prof Al Lamki gave a history of the development of child health services in Oman, delivering details of the various programme that were applied in order to raise the quality of services.
The five-day conference features eight keynote presentations, 186 working papers, and 52 workshops on different medical topics.
Around 1,200 students from 40 universities and medical colleges are taking part.