Amman- 2 October 2018
On Tuesday, October 2, 2018, under the patronage of the President of the German Jordanian University (GJU), Prof. Manar Fayyad, The School of Applied Medical Sciences (SAMS), organized the first national seminar on “Health Informatics (eHealth)” in collaboration with the eHealth Development Association (eHDA).
The seminar was attended by Vice President Dr. Atef Kharabsheh, the Society members, UNRWA representatives, Medecins Sans Frontieres representatives, academic staff and students.
The seminar aimed at raising awareness about health informatics and its importance in the development of health services in Jordan. The seminar comes as a first step to establish a Master Program in “Health Informatics” - Department of Biomedical Engineering.
In her speech, Fayyad pointed to the importance of the topic, not only at the national level but also at the school’s level, stressing the university's commitment and support in providing the necessary resources and expertise to develop a master's program in the field.
Former president of The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) - the world body for health and biomedical informatics- prof. Reinhold Haux conducted a presentation on eHealth and Health Informatics in the Support of Health and Health Care: International Developments and Examples.
For his part, the President of the Society, Dr. Najeeb Al-Shorbaji, introduced the vision of the society, which represent excellence, innovation and pioneering in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the health sector in Jordan.
UNRWA's Director of Health Services, Dr. Akihiro Seita, and Engineer Ghada Balout also spoke about UNRWA's e-health system, which provides services to 5 million refugees in the region.
In addition, Dr. Muhannad Al- Hassan, Telemedicine Coordinator for the Middle East at Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), presented a detailed explanation of the RE-ACT program available in MSF in the field of telemedicine. The program links between physicians in different countries and the network specialists of the organization.
At the end of the seminar that was coordinated and organized by Dr. Walid Al Zyoud, Al-Shorbaji concluded with a summary on how to attract the necessary expertise and resources to develop this sector in Jordan.
Finally, the Dean of SAMS Dr. Adnan Al Lahham moderated a questions and answers session.
A special thanks to Prof. Munib Al- Saket and Dr. Walid Al Zyoud for their tremendous efforts to make this event a huge success.
