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Sidra Medical and Research Center is set to launch an ambitious long-term strategy 2019-2024, which provides a strong foundation upon which to meet the changing needs of its patients, community and the wider health system. In an interview with The Business Year, Peter Morris, CEO of Sidra, speaks about his plans to bring the best talent to Qatar, establish the region's most advanced tertiary maternal care, and setup the country's best translational biomedical research facility.
Since joining Sidra in January 2016, Morris has overseen the opening of the Sidra Outpatient Clinic, which has over 46 clinics and services dedicated to specialist paediatric and obstetrics care for the children and women of Qatar. He has over 20 years' experience in CEO and board-level appointments in academic medical centres across the UK. In 2008, he was awarded an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to healthcare.
How is Sidra setting a new standard for healthcare in Qatar?
Sidra Medical and Research Center is a groundbreaking hospital, research and education institution, focusing on the health and well-being of children and women locally, regionally and globally. Once fully operational, it will be the only provider of acute paediatric services in Qatar, as well as the sole tertiary centre for providing maternal services involving foetal complications. Sidra will be a fully digital facility, incorporating the most advanced information technology applications in all its functions. Sidra opened its outpatient services in May 2016 with the launch of three clinics. Since then, we have launched 46 clinics and services and have cared for over 16,000 patients. We offer several unique services including the country's first women's well-being clinic dedicated to providing perinatal mental healthcare services. When fully operational, we expect to deliver 9,000-10,000 births per annum. We also launched Qatar's first child advocacy programme.
What parameters do you follow when hiring high-skilled physicians?
We are making considerable progress in our recruitment of specialised staff including clinical and non-clinical hires. We now have over 1,500 talented doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals, medical administration and support service staff. We are recruiting fast, and we are excited that we will be welcoming more than 2,000 new recruits over the coming months. Our talent comes from far and wide in the world, and we currently have 70 nationalities working at Sidra. The pace and scale of expansion of our services will depend on our ability to recruit suitably qualified staff as certain specialised staff are in short supply worldwide. Our criteria for doctors are those who are trained and qualified to recognised international standards.
What role does research play in your long-term strategy and what is your role within the Qatar Genome Program (QGP)?
Sidra's research capabilities are tied to the ultimate goal of improving healthcare delivery in Qatar. And we cannot achieve this in isolation. Sidra is part of a dynamic research and education environment in Qatar. Through strong national partnerships and tie-ups with leading institutions around the world, we are creating an intellectual ecosystem to help advance scientific discovery through investment in medical research. Sidra's research branch aims to advance our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of diseases, develop early prevention, accurate diagnostic and advance therapeutics, and improve the health outcomes of the women and children of Qatar. We are competitive at an international level now, creating comprehensive Qatari genomic databases, which will form the building blocks for precision medicine, not only in Qatar, but also in the wider Middle East. The country has made significant investment in genomic and biomedical research, and Sidra is testament to that investment. Our ambition is to grow the nation's genetic and genomic offering by providing high quality services supported by cutting-edge research to improve health and well-being in Qatar. Sidra has been one of the major players from the beginning of the Qatar Genome Program and has been actively involved in proposal development, discussions and strategic planning for the QGP. We have completed QGP's pilot phase, having sequenced 3,000 genomes, and the next phase is underway. Sidra has also put in place an end-to-end Next Generation Sequencing data analysis system in partnership with WuXi NextCode.
What is your outlook for the year ahead?
Sidra is set to shortly launch an ambitious long-term strategy 2019-2024, which provides a strong foundation upon which to meet the changing needs of its patients, community and the wider health system. The Sidra Long-Term Strategy is clinically driven, with research and education components that reinforce the development of the clinical services that make the strongest contribution toward improving the health and well-being of women and children in a sustainable way. Sidra's ambition for 2024 is to have established a strong programme of translational biomedical research.
