MENA Health World (MHW), the pioneering business-to-business magazine for the Medical, Laboratory, Pharmaceutical, & Nutrition sectors in the Middle East & North Africa, is proud to announce the winners of its 2008 Excellence Awards. The program’s aim is to celebrate great innovations and exquisite achievements within the rapidly evolving healthcare industry in the Middle East & North Africa region. The judging panel was comprised of MHW’s Honorary Editorial Consultants (HEC) who worked together with the magazine’s editorial team. The HEC board is a group of renowned international healthcare professionals. Decisions were based upon the study and analysis of each company’s performance and activity documentation and the cyclic comparison of the observed results.

Product of the Year

This award goes to the CyberKnife® Robotic Radiosurgery System. The combination of robotics and image guidance is revolutionizing medicine and Accuray’s CyberKnife® is part of this revolution and represents a fundamental step forward in cancer care. It is a non-invasive robotic radiosurgery system that treats lesions and tumors anywhere in the body using high dose beams of radiation. The CyberKnife System is the only radiosurgery system designed to continually track, detect and correct for any movement of the patient and tumor throughout the treatment, providing the ideal non-invasive tool for both clinicians and patients. This unique ability is important for treating tumors that move – particularly those in the spine, lung, liver, pancreas and prostate.

The CyberKnife® System’s Synchrony® Respiratory Tracking System tracks moving lung tumors based on the correlation between the movement of light-emitting markers on the patient’s chest and the position of the tumor as revealed in intraoperative radiographs. The outcome is a system that can move the treatment beam to track the moving tumor. The promise is that lung tumors (and all tumors that move with respiration) can be treated more accurately and with smaller peri-tumoral margins.

Website of the Year

Women with breast diseases can now find help on a new non-profit website www.beautybeyondbreast.com which is dedicated to providing women in the Middle East expert information on breast health, breast self examination, breast cancer, and breast diseases.

The website was launched in Abu Dhabi UAE, by leading breast surgeon Dr. Arati Shirali. It aims to give young women diagnosed with breast diseases and breast cancer, the resources and support required to identify the early signs and symptoms of the disease.

The name of the website highlights the fact that a woman’s beauty is very intrinsic and is a “beauty beyond breast”. Her beauty is in her strength, which is a strong force that binds her family. A woman should feel very confident in openly discussing and detecting any breast-related issues, since her silence is her biggest obstacle in early detection and cure, according to Shirali.

The website contains no graphic pictures, in order to accommodate a child-friendly nature of the content - women can also discuss this with their daughters. This is achieved by drawing a similarity using fruits, as an analogy to "Train your Eyes".

Charity Work of the Year

Marking the World Sight Day Magrabi Hospitals & Centers, Saudi Arabia made a generous donation to Ebsaar foundation for Rehabilitation and Vision Impairment Services to support the philanthropic cause of the charity in KSA. Magrabi’s major corporate social responsibility initiative allocated one Saudi Riyal out of every check-up fee at Magrabi Hospitals and Centers and generated a SR150,000 (US$40,000) donation to Ebsaar.

Mr. Mohammad Al Bilo, GM of Ebsaar foundation praised this initiative and urged all corporations and individuals to lend a hand and contribute to this noble cause, which would uplift the kingdom’s health standards. “This generous gesture is part of the ongoing support we have been receiving form Magrabi Hospitals and Centres over the years.” said Al Bilo, “It underlines the longstanding relationship between Ebsaar and Magrabi, the pioneers in ophthalmology and vision care sector throughout the Middle East.” 

Mr. Mutasim Alireza, CEO Magrabi Hospitals & Centers, Saudi Arabia commented: “Supporting who suffer vision impairment across the kingdom and providing them with all means of rehabilitation and assistance trigger our irrevocable commitment to philanthropic causes.” 

Medical Facility of the Year

Winner of this award is the Dubai Bone and Joint Center (DBAJ), the first private medical facility in the Middle East region that offers comprehensive musculoskeletal treatment comparable to international standards. Equipped with specialized and experienced medical practitioners, DBAJ endeavors to offer patients suffering from musculoskeletal disorders, the highest quality of treatment and services. Aimed at enabling patients from the region to live a pain-free and better quality life, the world-class center offers innovative treatments and facilities.

Situated at Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) which is poised to become the regional hub for medical excellence, DBAJ plays an important role as the only extensive medical facility for orthopedic disorders in the Middle East.

Its team of specialized orthopedic surgeons has vast global experience in diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal system disorders and strives to integrate medical care with research and treatment. Besides providing services such as Joint Replacement, Back & Neck Surgery, Rheumatology, Pediatric Orthopedics and Physiotherapy, DBAJ also offers state-of-the-art radiological imaging with 3-D reconstruction.

Software of the Year

The award goes to dicomPACS®DX-R, a professional acquisition software for images from flat panel (DR) and imaging plate (CR) systems of any manufacturer, developed by OR Technology. The software can also control X-ray generators and motorized X-ray systems, enabling an ideal work process.

Special features of the software include the organ specific image processing providing a high image quality and the integrated radiographic positioning guide with detailed instructions for the taking of images. The solution is completed by the easy and fast operation via touchscreen or mouse control.

dicomPACS®DX-R is of particular interest for manufacturers of X-ray systems. By using the acquisition software they can reduce their development costs and period. dicomPACS®DX-R is a stand-alone software solution with a special version for OEMs and also an integral part of a product line.

OR Technology offers various DR solutions, such as manufacturer-independent integration into existing X-ray units or complete systems with either U-arm or wall stand and table system. In addition, the company provides mobile and portable solutions. These products are comprehensive solutions including a flat panel detector, a PC with user friendly operation via touchscreen, and the acquisition software.

Medication of the Year

Supported by statistics, doctors believe cardiovascular diseases (CVD) amount to 28 percent of all deaths in the UAE, and 31.4 percent of all deaths in Dubai. Patients with heart disease in the UAE can significantly reduce the relative risk of suffering a first cardiovascular event by 19 percent, a new study has shown.

In patients with established heart disease, Pfizer’s Lipitor® (atorvastatin calcium) 80 mg, winner of this category’s award, not only significantly reduced the relative risk of suffering a first cardiovascular event by 19 percent compared to Lipitor 10 mg but also provided a sustained reduction in the risk of a subsequent second, third, fourth, and fifth cardiovascular event, according to a subanalysis of the five-year Treating to New Targets (TNT) study.

“These results are a significant breakthrough for people suffering from heart disease in the UAE as they take into account the total clinical benefits achieved by intensive LDL (Low Density Lipids) cholesterol lowering,” said Dr. Azan Bin Brek, Consultant Cardiologist & Head of Cardiology Department Rashid Hospital, Department of Health. 

Fastest Developing Company

This award goes to Royal Philips Electronics, a diversified Health and Wellbeing company, focused on improving people"s lives through timely innovations. As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of "sense and simplicity."

Philips was recognized as the fastest developing company in view of its increased and wide activity throughout the world; the following is but a sample of its impressive achievements. In January 2008, Tawam Hospital implemented one of the most advanced Patient Data Management Systems in the world. Using Philips’ Intellivue Clinical Information Portfolio CC Clinical Information System, patient data is collected from life support equipment and centrally stored online, providing clinical staff with instant access to the information from anywhere in the hospital. In February, Philips announced it will lead a new European Union (EU) funded research project (the HeartCycle) aimed at improving care of heart patients through the development of innovative telemonitoring solutions. In April, the company launched its services portfolio which enables its global network of SpeechMagic partners to access the company’s know-how and expertise in the field of healthcare documentation. In June, Philips and the Specialized Academy for Medical Training (SAMT) announced, that they will work together to provide medical education and training programs for young Saudi high school graduates and staff in hospitals and medical centers across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In July, the Cardiac Sciences Department of Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) became a regional reference site for Philips Ambient Experience Cath Lab, echocardiography and cardiovascular information solutions.

Campaign of the Year

The award goes to Toufoula, a youth group based in Lebanon dedicated to help improve the quality of life of young children suffering from cancer and blood disease by: Providing financial assistance; Creating the most appropriate treatment environment and facilities; Creating public awareness; and Supporting all other organizations and individuals that share the same goal.

Toufoula"s aim is to build a "dream floor" ward specific for those children, designed vividly in order to transcend and break the concept of a "plain" room. The children"s room will be transformed into a playground or a flamboyant world for them to discover while undergoing treatment.

Since children spend a great deal of time in the hospital, consequently their fantasies are shattered to simple questions such as when do we get well? Driven by a humane longing, Toufoula"s aim is to distract the children from this question and its repercussions and provide a good atmosphere to help them surpass the many obstacles that may come their way, creating a dreamy haven for them to dwell in.

Innovation of the Year

The winner for this category is RapidArc™ radiotherapy technology, a major advance and innovation from Varian Medical Systems that improves dose conformity while significantly shortening treatment times. RapidArc delivers treatments two to eight times faster than today’s fastest dynamic treatments and increase precision – a winning combination that enables physicians to improve the standard of care and treat more patients.

RapidArc is a volumetric arc therapy that delivers a precisely sculpted 3D dose distribution with a single 360-degree rotation of the linear accelerator gantry. It is made possible by a treatment planning algorithm that simultaneously changes three parameters during treatment: rotation speed of the gantry; shape of the treatment aperture using the movement of multileaf collimator leaves; and delivery dose rate.