Al-Rabeeah wins top medical award

Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah has been named the recipient of the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences for outstanding medical personalities in the Arab world, the Ministry of Health (MoH) announced here yesterday.
An MoH official said the minister will be honored with the award at the 7th Dubai International Conference for Medical Sciences which will be held on Monday at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibitions Center.
The prize comes in appreciation of Al-Rabeeah's contributions to the development of health sector and to other humanitarian medical services at a global level.
During the award ceremony, Al-Rabeeah is slated to deliver a talk on his experience on separation of conjoined twins in the Kingdom.
This award is for distinguished personalities who have dedicated their life to the development of medical science in the Arab region. The objective of this award is to recognize the work that influenced the medical development of excellence in the Arab region and the Arab community.
The winners are selected through recommendations from health ministries of the countries from the Arab world and based on the individual's scientific and academic achievements which are reflected in his/her personal contributions and dedications for the medical development in the Arab world.
Since its establishment in 1990, around 28 physicians and volunteer workers in the area of humanitarian services had won the prize the winners included Americans, Brtons, Australians, Italians, Germans and a Finn besides winners from the Middle East region.
Al-Rabeeah became the Kingdom's health minister in 2009. Prior to his appointment as minister, he was the chief executive officer of National Guard Health Affairs at the King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh.
Globally renowned as a successful surgeon for separation of conjoined twins, Al-Rabeeah has successfully separated conjoined twins from various countries such as Poland, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and the Kingdom.
Al-Rabeeah vowed to continue his contribution toward separation surgeries.
Al-Rabeeah performed the first separation surgery in the Kingdom in December 1990 at Riyadh’s King Faisal Specialist Hospital. The operation, which was successful, was performed on Saudi twin girls joined at the stomach.
Under the leadership of Al-Rabeeah, Saudi Arabia has a team of top surgeons specialized in the separation of twins with the experience of treating 63 twins from 17 countries of which 28 have been successful. The remaining cases were not fit for separation owing to health reasons.