Abu Dhabi: The Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DoH) and the American Heart Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance collaboration in healthcare sector.
The collaboration seeks to enhance access to distinguished healthcare services for heart attack and stroke patients across Abu Dhabi and implement common treatment platforms to ensure patients are rapidly transported to and treated at the appropriate hospital. The MoU is the Association’s first agreement with a government entity outside the United States to adopt a healthcare ‘systems of care’ approach.
The agreement was signed by Dr. Saleh Al Ali, Executive Director of the Centre of Emergency Preparedness and Response (CEPAR) at DoH, and Ms. Puja Patel, Vice President, International Quality and Global Certification at the American Heart Association.
The Department of Health Abu Dhabi is committed to collaborating with global strategic partners and unifying efforts to further advance and accelerate access to quality care for patients in Abu Dhabi and around the world. Through this collaboration, we look forward to achieving excellence with the American Heart Association to advance our stroke and cardiology ventures, strengthen the Emirate’s system of care for heart disease and stroke patients, and safeguard the health and well-being of the community.
Dr. Al Ali shared.
According to the MoU, the two parties will cooperate to integrate the Association’s standards for chest pain and stroke centers to extend guideline-directed care for patients across their healthcare journey.
The collaboration will focus on six components: stakeholder coordination, education, public awareness, sustainability, rehabilitation task force, and evaluations. These components will be delivered through a certification program that will build on existing infrastructure, including the expertise of the Abu Dhabi Stroke and STEMI Task Forces and the Association.
The MoU also requires both parties to develop and implement an awareness campaign on stroke and heart attack symptoms and the importance of calling emergency services.
Furthermore, the partnership aims to establish improvements and systems that can be sustained by DoH and its stakeholders, leveraging the association’s certification and quality improvement programs.