A two-day training workshop on improving causes of death documentation methodology, organized by the Ministry of Health, with support and partnership of the World Health Organization (WHO), Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), and the Oman Medical Specialty Board (OMSB), began today ( Sunday) at Avani hotel.

H.E. Dr. Saeed Harib Al Lamki, MOH’s Undersecretary for Health Affairs patronized the event, with the presence of H.E. Dr. John Jabbour, WHO Representative of Oman, and Dr. Qasim Al Salmi, MOH’s Director General of Planning and Studies, in addition to the participation of various health, civil, and military sectors.

The workshop targeted physicians and medical coders in the hospitals and relevant health workers.

The event was commenced by a speech of WHO Representative of Oman where he stressed the importance of  death data and statistics for their multiple uses in supporting the health system, monitoring public health, evaluating health interventions, planning and following up health care services, in addition to their wide uses in medical research. Data on causes of death by age and gender is essential for health decision-making; he elaborated noting that countries assign substantial resources to collecting, comparing and analyzing causes of death.

This training workshop aims at improving skills of physicians and coders and then uploading the training material after approval to an electronic platform with the aim of making it available to a larger number of target audience, in coordination and cooperation with OMSB. The project is the result of collaborative efforts among number of multi-sectorial institutions to develop a sustainable electronic platform for improving quality of death data.

The concept of the workshop, significance, and goals were highlighted A working paper on clinical documentation in the patient's file and medical coding of morbidity and mortality.

The workshop will further discuss key reports and indicators related to deaths and the quality of correct attestation and touch on important definitions and basic elements in the health file and death notification.