Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC), one of the UAE’s largest hospitals for serious and complex care and a joint-venture partnership between Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha) and Mayo Clinic, has officially launched its comprehensive centre for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The new facility is unique in the UAE, offering differentiated care and is set to become the preeminent destination for IBD medical care in the region.
As part of its set of services, the SSMC IBD Centre has taken onboard a new dedicated, multidisciplinary team of experts that will be delivering surgical, endoscopic, nutritional, radiological, pharmaceutical and eventually behavioral health services, amongst others.
Dr Talha Malik, SSMC’s new director for the SSMC IBD Center, said: “Our aim is to keep our approach to IBD care patient-centric and comprehensive; creating a one-stop-shop for IBD care that caters to our patient’s specific treatment requirements.”
The SSMC IBD Centre has a team of specialised colorectal surgeons who offer the full gamut of surgical procedures, including minimally invasive and robotic surgery. This approach has a significant impact on patient outcome, reducing the risk of complications, pregnancy and fertility issues as well as improving future bowel function.
“We specialise in advanced methods of detection such as chromoendscopy (both digital and blue-dye) and the removal of these through endoscopes as opposed to surgery. We have already received patients who have been referred to us for surgery, but we can offer them a non-surgical removal of those lesions.”
A rarely available procedure at other UAE facilities is chromo colonoscopy, which is an area of expertise offered by the SSMC IBD Center. Chromo colonoscopy, or chromoendoscopy, is an adjunctive procedure which refers to the application of topical dying or digital optical filters during an endoscopy in order to identify otherwise difficult to see abnormalities.
Dr Talha Malik said: “In addition to our innovative and holistic approach, we’re actively seeking to create the first IBD consortium in Abu Dhabi. This registry will encompass every IBD patient in the emirate and will enable us to conduct robust observational research and put into place a clinical trials infrastructure that directly aims to address the needs of our local IBD patients.”
Another marked benefit for SSMC IBD patients will be their access to gender-preferred care. As part of SSMC’s ‘Where Women Take Care of Women’ campaign that ran during Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, SSMC’s female endoscopists and colorectal surgeon spearheaded the practise of colonoscopies and colorectal care for female patients, offering reassurance and ‘comfortability’ as a means to increase participation in endoscopic screening.
