Qatar gains edge with robotic expertise

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Dr Bakr Nour (far right) with three of the robotics-trained surgeons and the newly installed da Vinci robot, at Hamad Medical Corporation.

Doctors at Qatar's largest public hospital have become the first in the country to offer robotic-assisted surgeries to patients.

The five surgeons at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) form part of a six-strong team of doctors being trained to teach robotic skills, following a deal struck between Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) and Imperial College London (ICL).

Under the terms of the contract, ICL will work alongside QSTP to build a robotics facility; the first in the Gulf.

The centre, which is scheduled to open in 2009, is expected to train 50 doctors from Qatar and the wider region and 80 medical students each year.

The six doctors - five from HMC and one from Weill Cornell - will slot teaching duties around their surgical schedules.

HMC has taken possession of its first da Vinci robot, at a cost of QAR8mn (US$2.19mn).

Hospital surgeons have already successfully used the robot in three urology cases.

"We expect it to be used predominately for prostate cases in the first six months, moving towards obstetrics and gynecology, cardiac surgery and abdominal surgery in the future," said Dr Abdulatif Al Khal, chairman of the department of medicine at the hospital.

Robots can move steadily in smaller increments than a surgeon's hand. This precision means less trauma, a quicker recovery and a shorter stay in hospital for the patient.

Critics, however, have questioned the cost-effectiveness of the Qatar scheme when preventive medicine - an area underrepresented in the Gulf - offers better value for money.

Dr Khal dismissed concerns over funding. He said: "We're government-funded so outcome determines our strategy rather than cost benefit. We want to ride this train early."

Dr Bakr Nour, a professor of surgery at HMC and a member of the robotic surgery team, completed his first stage of training at ICL last month.

"It's the culmination of the work started by laparoscopic surgery, but with more mobility and freedom," he said.

Dr Nour, who heads HMC's liver transplant clinic, believes the robot could be used in the majority of his surgical cases.

"I see 30 patients a year with liver tumours, for example, and I could treat 100% of them using this method," he said. "I really support this initiative."

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