Heart surgeries in Dubai to be streamed to 15,000 doctors

Two patients will have a worldwide audience of thousands when their cardiac surgeries at a Dubai hospital next week are streamed live on the internet. The Dubai Heart Centre will perform the two operations via webcast to a European cardiovascular congress later this month. Around 15,000 cardiologists are expected to be watching as Dr Talib Majwal, director of interventional cardiology at the centre, performs "two of the most critical cardiac procedures" during a live feed to Paris.

According to the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), the emirate will be the first Middle Eastern city to participate in the live sessions at the EuroPCR Congress, scheduled from May 25 to May 28 and organised by the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions. "Today is truly a day in history," said Qadhi al Murooshid, director general of the DHA. "This puts Dubai, the UAE and Dubai Heart Centre on the global map of health care excellence.

"Our vision to provide exceptional quality health care to our community has been overachieved." Dr Majwal will perform an "unprotected left main" procedure, and a "complex patient" surgery. They were both "very complex and critical", he said, but regularly performed at the hospital on a weekly "if not a daily" basis, he said. "I'm very happy to be part of such a global and historical initiative. EuroPCR is truly the most anticipated event in the field of cardiology every year."

He said the centre had a very "high and consistent" success rate and was "proud" to show the world what it could do. The facility will be one of 15 facilities across the world picked by the congress's board of directors to take part in the live sessions between May 25 and 28. The patients to undergo surgery were not identified. @Email:munderwood@thenational.ae