Under the auspices of H.H Al Sayyid Taimoor bin Asa’ad bin Tariq A’al Saeed, the 13^th Gulf Heart Association Conference that the Sultanate is hosting was on Wednesday at Al Bustan Palace Hotel with the presence of H.E. Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Al Saidi, Minister of Health, H.E. Dr. Hajar Ahmed Hajar Al Binali, Adviser to the Amir (Prince) of Qatar, and Prof. Sir Magdi Yacoub, international cardio surgeon,  as well as number of Undersecretaries and high rank officials.

The inauguration ceremony commenced by a welcome speech delivered by Prof. Mohammed Zubaid, the chairman of the Gulf Heart Association (GHA), where he shed the light on the most three activities that the Association is proud of namely, organizing an annual Heart conference, issuing a medical journals such as the Arabic Heart magazine which is considered an educational source for doctors and workers in the medical sector in the GCC, and the third activity is represented in the Association records regarding health surveys for several diseases.  

Moreover, Dr. Kadhim Ja’far Sulaiman, vice-president of the Oman Heart Association (OHA) and Head of the conference Organizing committee pointed out in his welcome speech that based on the GHA studies that proved the Cardio diseases are the main cause of deaths in the Gulf community, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has carried out a comprehensive survey for Non communicable chronic disease risk factors above all are heart diseases with the aim of setting up necessary plans and programs to tackle these diseases. He further affirmed that the organizing committee has taken the necessary steps and measures to ensure the success of this conference.

 Later, Prof. Sir Magdi Yacoub, Cardiothoracic Surgery professor from the United Kingdom (UK) delivered the conference opening speech.

The inauguration program included a presentation on the GCC Heart Association and its former conferences in addition to another presentation on the National Heart Center.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the patron of the conference opened the accompanying exhibition of the pharmaceutical companies. The exhibition allowed the medical industries to display their latest medical equipment and medicines used in the diagnosis and treatment of various cardiac conditions. It also presented booklets about heart prepared by the Oman Heart Association and the MOH.

The four-day conference, which is organized by the Oman Heart Association in collaboration with the MOH, was attended by more than 600 participants from the Sultanate, GCC, and other countries including cardiologists , other medical specialties, and assistance medical categories. More than 50 prominent experts in the field of cardiovascular diseases from the Sultanate, GCC, United States and several European countries participated in the conference with lectures.

The Scientific sessions started earlier at the morning and will be addressing various themes through presenting 50 working papers such as Acute Coronary Syndromes and the surgical interventions, Congenital Heart Diseases, Cardiac Arrhythmias, and Cardiac Emergencies.

Furthermore, the conference was preceded by three workshops on Electrocardiography (ECG), Echocardiography, and Cardiovascular Nursing.

It should be noted that the Gulf Heart Association has been organizing an annual conference to be held in one of the GCC countries alternately and the Sultanate is hosting its activities this year for the third time.