Dubai, United Arab Emirates, April 17, 2016: The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) held a brainstorming session today with various stakeholders to discuss the implementation of the Dubai Heart Safe City Project at the Dubai Health Forum.

The project aims to increase the survival rate of sudden cardiac arrest in Dubai and aims to break the world’s benchmark and achieve 65 per cent survival rate by 2020. Presently, globally, the average survival rate of patients with out of hospital sudden cardiac arrest is between 5  to 10 per cent because every minute following a heart attack is crucial and medical help needs to reach the patient within four minutes. Very few cities are exceptions- Copenhagen has a survival rate of 64 per cent while Seattle has a survival rate of 62 per cent.

DHA has studied the best practises adopted by these cities and has roped in several partners in the project including governmental authorities and Philips to design a model that will put Dubai among one of the heart safest cities in the world.

Today, representatives from Dubai Police, Dubai Ambulance, RTA, Dubai Sports Council, KHDA, Dubai Civil Defense, Dubai Civil Aviation and Dubai Municipality

His Excellency Humaid Al Qatami, Chairman of the Board and Director-General of the DHA chaired the brainstorming session. He highlighted that   DHA is using technology and human capital in all fields of healthcare to better patient outcomes and improve patient care. “This project is of absolute importance because it has a direct impact on saving lives,” added Al Qatami.

Dr Moin Fikree, Medical Director of Rashid Hospital’s Trauma Centre, said: “ The project will rope in all healthcare facilities in Dubai, governmental organizations like Dubai Police and Dubai Ambulance to ensure we have an end-to-end coordinated and efficient approach to ensuring the patient receives first-responder medical care within four minutes. We will use smart technology and an app which can be downloaded easily. If a person is having a sudden cardiac arrest he or his family members can activate the emergency button on the app. Automatically, first responders, ambulance officials and nearby hospitals will get a notification so that help reaches the person in less than four minutes.”

Dr Fahd Baslaib, Director of Cardiology at Rashid Hospital, said: “In order to achieve this, we will train 100,000 to 150,000 people in delivering CPR and how to use a defibrillator. Presently, 30,000 people are already trained.    We will place  defibrillators  across different areas of the city. A defibrillator delivers a dose of electric current  to the heart and buys the patient survival time. Simultaneously, all ambulance officials will be notified and once the patient is in the ambulance all the data including the patient’s ECG report will be transferred to the hospital which is at the closest proximity and is equipped to deal with such cases.”

“This project will be a completely coordinated one, ensuring all stakeholders come together to provide immediate response to patients within less than four minutes. In Dubai, we already have excellent services in cardiac care; in fact, Dubai Hospital and Rashid Hospital are heart centres that deal with complicated cases on a regular basis. This project is crucial because it brings all relevant stakeholders in heart care together to deal with out of hospital sudden cardiac arrest and ensures we  have a  robust system in place to reach such patients in record time.”

Dr Baslaib added that all stakeholders will continue to work together to develop a roadmap and implement the project by the year 2020.