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“King Faisal Specialist Hospital” witnesses the launch of “Rofaida” Women’s Health Society

HRH Princess Moudi: Investing in Women’s Health extends to the coming generations

Dr. Al Qasabi: “KFSH” has precise and varied programmes to protect the family from genetic diseases

HRH Princess Moudi bent Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Shura Council Member, announced the founding of “Rofaida” Women’s Health, which is the first non-profit organisation in the Kingdom that adopts complete and comprehensive approach for women’s health. 

The announcement was made in her opening speech of a medical Symposium for the Saudi Woman, which was hosted on Thursday April 7 2016 by King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh.

Princess Moudi who is the President of “Rofaida” Women Health Society said that the Society is non-profit and its mission is to enhance the health of women in the Kingdom through knowledge, awareness, education and training. This, she added, will extend to the coming generations, while expressing the ambition of the society to work closely with its partners in promoting health in KSA for the benefit of women.     

She also emphasised that discussing women’s health is an extension of the development of health care in the world where the last five decades saw tremendous advances in the health sector and great improvement in health indicators such as the increase in average age and a drop in children mortality. The world has also witnessed various advances in medical treatments which resulted in raising the standard and quality of life.

His Excellency Dr. Qasim Al Qasabi, Chief Executive Officer of King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre pointed out that the Hospital is investing great efforts in women’s health through various specializations and programmes, notably in the gene diagnosis and therapy programme established in 2008 which deals with surgical interventions of embryos during pregnancy pointing that this programme is the first of its kind in the region and aims at providing comprehensive care according to the latest medical techniques for mother and fetus. The programme is manned by a medical team of various specialties with extensive experience and efficiency. The team, he added, has succeeded in treating fetal and complicated deformities with results that emulate the advanced world centres. 

The Specialist Hospital, he added, also has a specialised programme in Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) where around 1600 families suffering from genetic diseases are monitored and that the genetic diseases has been identified through precise medical and laboratory procedures, giving the Hospital the opportunity to provide those families the assistance to have healthy children by avoiding the transmission of genetic disease to the fetus using very precise medical techniques.

Dr. Al Qasabi explained that the Specialty Hospital is considered to be a reference centre for providing comprehensive medical diagnosis and care for breast cancer. According to the recent surveys, the number of annual new cases of breast cancer which receive care at the Specialist Hospital in Riyadh has exceeded 400 cases.

Dr. Fatima Alhamlan, virology researcher at King Faisal Specialised Hospital and Research Centre, Vice Chairwoman of “Rofaida” Society and Head of the organizing committee of the symposium, said that the society which has been accredited by the Ministry of Social Affairs is the result of an initiative by King Faisal Specialised Hospital and Research Centre to enhance and raise the level of awareness in women’s health in Saudi society which is witnessing unprecedented interaction and willingness in voluntary and caring work. She pointed out that the Society aims to be a credible and comprehensive reference for women’s health given the fact that it includes some of the best professionals in health and social work.

Dr. Muna Al-Mushait, member of Shura Council Member and Consultant Gynecologist gave a lecture explaining the importance of adding programmes relating to women’s health within the Kingdom’s health system. This is due to a number of factors including the fact that women’s health care is usually more complicated than man’s health and women have an average life of 3 to 5 years more than men beside her care of other members of the family who have varying levels of health in addition to her usual home duties. Dr. Al-Mushait added that women face various factors that affect her while growing and after puberty. She also pointed to the most important health risks facing women represented in obesity, osteoporosis, heart diseases, cancer and stress caused by caring for others in addition to the lack of exercise.