The official opening of the new Trauma and Emergency Center at Hamad General Hospital (HGH) occurred on September 9th, 2019, by His Highness the Amir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, and this center represents an important milestone in the provision of emergency and trauma care in Qatar. Professor Sandro Rizoli, former student and resident of School of Medical Sciences (SMS) of University of Campinas (Unicamp) is the director of the new Trauma and Emergency Center at Doha, Qatar. Rizoli, worked at University of Toronto for the last 25 years, moved to Qatar last January with the mission of join the organization of the trauma system until the World Soccer Cup in 2022.

The new centre will also expand and improve upon HGH’s capacity to care for patients in need of trauma care with the first floor housing the Hamad Trauma Center, Qatar’s major trauma facility. Receiving around 2,000 cases annually, it provides care to people with serious injuries from across Qatar. Its location within the new Trauma and Emergency Center means that patients arriving by ambulance, or helicopter, via the helipad on the adjacent surgical service facility, are now able to speedily access trauma services for immediate care, resuscitation, and stabilization. The facility also benefits from five trauma and emergency rooms which are fully equipped to be converted into mini operating theatres in the event of a mass casualty incident or an accident requiring immediate surgical intervention. Patients can then be rapidly and seamlessly transferred from there to the Trauma or Surgical Intensive Care Units as well as the operating theaters at Hamad General Hospital via the link bridge on the first floor. As part of the inauguration, the new Hyperbaric Therapy Unit was also officially opened, highlighting one of the many cutting-edge therapies that Hamad General Hospital is bringing to Qatar.

Other good new about Prof. Rizoli is his selection as Editor-in-Chief of the Panamerican Journal of Trauma, Critical Care & Emergency Surgery (PAJTCCES). He succeeded Dr. Rao Ivatury on August 1st, 2019. Rizoli was selected from an international group of candidates.

See the news in Gulf Times Journal.