By Abdellatif Sharaa

KUWAIT: The surgical department at Jaber Hospital announced the opening of the Center for Research and Innovation, which is considered the first of its type in Kuwait and the region. Head of the surgery department at Jaber Hospital and Director of Kuwait Board of Surgery Dr Sulaiman Al-Mazeedi said the importance of this center is that it enables doctors to help patients in a better way. He added medicine in the past relied solely on doctors' experience, but today this has changed in favor of evidence-based medicine that is used in treatment.

Mazeedi appreciated the health ministry's role in supporting developmental work at Jaber Hospital, thanking Health Minister Dr Ahmad Al-Awadhi and Undersecretary Dr Mustafa Redha. The head of plastic surgery at Jaber Hospital Sarah Al-Youha said the laboratory has space for 3D printers at the innovation center, adding the idea behind this lab and its existence gives many opportunities to innovate to doctors and surgeons.

"We have custom-designed equipment made for patients who suffer from fractures and wounds, and among its features is that it enables us to have accurate measurements for patients to manufacture detailed tools for them to help them nurse their injuries. In addition, three dimensional printing enables us to prepare for tumor surgeries in a modern fashion, as it became possible to use CT scans of patients to print models for the body's organs, liver or the colon, and use them for accurate planning before surgical procedures," she added.

Head of the hepatobiliary and transplant unit Dr Mohammad Jamal said: "We are happy as doctors at the surgery department of Jaber Hospital, especially when we recall the past with Jaber Hospital and the challenges related to it as when we started work in 2018. It was a huge building that required much work, and many people did not think that we will reach to what we achieved today."

He said the opening of the innovation and research center at the hospital is clear evidence of this, adding it instills the principle that modern medicine relies on innovation and research. "The good thing about it is that it is done by Kuwaiti doctors who cooperated for the sake of reaching this achievement," he added. Associate professor at Kuwait University's College of Medicine and head of endocrine surgery at Jaber Hospital Dr Salman Al-Safran said the research and innovation center will help form a link between academic and clinical work in the interest of patients.