MAKKAH: The first Saudi and fourth GCC conference on promoting health is to be held at the InterContinental Jeddah on March 15-17 with a number of specialists from the US, Europe, Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries expected to participate. Representatives from the British pharmaceutical, biological, and health care company, GlaxoSmithKline, will also attend the 3-day conference that is being jointly organized by the GCC and the Saudi Society for Community Medicine (SSCM).
The conference is to be sponsored by Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, chairman of the Arab Gulf Program for UN Development Organizations (AGFUND) and SSCM’s honorary chairman.
Dr. Tawfiq bin Ahmad Khoja, director general of the Executive Bureau of GCC Health Ministers and chairman of the conference, said the meeting will focus on raising health awareness, encouraging healthy lifestyles, combating smoking, stressing the role of health insurance companies and highlighting chronic diseases etc.
He said that about 50 scientific papers would be delivered at the conference and that a number of workshops are to be concurrently held. Khoja said the Health Specializations Authority has granted all medical doctors, nurses and technicians permission to attend the conference.
