Doha – March 13, 2023: The Institute for Population Health (IPH) at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) held a one-day symposium to discuss population health challenges and outcomes, and ways to promote health.  

The symposium was designed to enable healthcare practitioners to look to the future of healthcare and sustainability, understand what equitable culturally competent patient care means, and become ‘change agents’ who can promote physical, mental, and social wellbeing. 

Topics under discussion included population health challenges and the emerging paradigm of health and disease, sustainability of the global lifestyle medicine movement, perspectives at the confluence of pandemics, and public health priorities in the region. In addition, an interactive panel discussion focused on public health in Qatar, the future of healthcare, required health curricula for school children, lifestyle health, and health policy and its challenges.

Event speakers included Sheikh Dr. Mohamed Bin Hamad Al Thani, director of the Public Health Department, Ministry of Public Health, Qatar, and associate professor of clinical population health sciences at WCM-Q and Qatar University, Dr. Javaid Sheikh, dean, professor of psychiatry, and professor of population health sciences at WCM-Q, Dr. Hanan Abdul Rahim, associate professor of public health (epidemiology) and dean of the College of Health Sciences, Qatar University,  Dr. Sohaila Cheema, associate professor of clinical population health sciences, and assistant dean for the IPH, WCM-Q and, Dr. Ravinder Mamtani, professor of population health sciences and vice dean for population health and lifestyle medicine at WCM-Q, and professor of medicine at the Center for Global Health, New York.

Visiting international expert speakers included Dr. Wayne Dysinger, past president, American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and CEO, Lifestyle Medical California, USA, and Dr. David Katz, president and founder, True Health Initiative, founder and CEO, Diet ID, Inc., and past president, American College of Preventive Medicine.

Dr. Mamtani said: “Data available on chronic illnesses over the past 20 to 25 years shows that we have a serious health crisis on our hands—a pandemic of chronic illness. The good news is that we can reduce premature mortality due to heart disease, cancer, and other chronic conditions by adopting lifestyle medicine approaches like a healthy diet, physical activity, healthy sleep patterns, and so on, thereby improving the health, wellbeing, and quality of life for a great many people, now and in the future. It is therefore imperative that healthcare professionals are equipped with relevant knowledge and skills related to population health and lifestyle medicine.” 

The course was aimed at physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, researchers, educators, public health professionals, dentists, pharmacists, healthcare administrators, and others working in the medical field.

The symposium, titled ‘Fixing the Broken Promise of Health,’ was accredited locally by the Department of Healthcare Professions (DHP) of the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and internationally by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME).