São Paulo – The Syrian Lebanese Hospital (HSL), from São Paulo, and the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce are going to promote a program for exchange in the medical area with the Arab nations. Next week, professionals from the HSL should travel to the Middle East to make contact with institutions from the region that are interested in partnerships.
According to the clinical director at the hospital, Riad Younes, the idea is to analyse the needs of each country and propose initiatives for the most appropriate cooperation. Talks with Syrian institutions are the most advanced. The University of Damascus, for example, plans to create a centre for liver transplant and wants know-how that the HSL has in the area.
Still in the Syrian capital, Younes and the Corporate Strategy superintendent at the hospital from São Paulo, Paulo Chapchap, plan to organise two mini symposiums about liver and lung transplants in case of cancer.
Later, the plan is to bring Syrian doctors for training at the HSL and to send Brazilians to the Arab country to develop surgeries, until local colleagues dominate the procedures.
The HSL is one of the most renowned hospitals in Brazil and dominates advanced technology, like the promotion of surgery with the use of videoconferencing and robotics. Apart from transplants and cancer treatment, the Syrians, according to Younes, are interested in exchange in the area of emergency medicine. Outside the university, other Syrian institutions involved in the initiative are the ministries of Health, Higher Education and Emigration.
Younes and Chapchap discussed the theme on Monday (27) with Arab Brazilian Chamber president Salim Taufic Schahin, the organisation’s Marketing vice president, Rubens Hannun, the Treasury vice-president, Marcelo Sallum, and directors Toufic Sleiman and Mustapha Abdouni.
Apart from Syria, in the same mission, the doctors are going to visit Lebanon, Doha, in Qatar, and the West Bank, in Palestine. "The idea is to verify what they need and the coverage [of said needs]," said Younes.
In Lebanon, for example, HSL professionals are going to talk to representatives of the American University of Beirut and Balamand University about exchange in the academic area in health. “In the West Bank, in turn, we want to analyse the possibility of collaborating with Palestinian authorities," said Younes.
In Doha, doctors are going to pay back a recent visit by professionals from Qatar interested in cooperation with the Brazilian hospital.
According to Younes, contact with Arab institutions began after the first trip taken by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the Middle East and North Africa, in 2003. The doctor pointed out that as soon as they noticed Brazil had an excellent hospital maintained by the Syrian and Lebanese community, Arab institutions interested in international cooperation started getting in touch with the HSL to make partnerships possible.
Rubens Hannun pointed out that the hospital already has agreements for cooperation with Arab institutions, as is the case with Sahlou Hospital, in Sousse, Tunisia. He believes that the trip should serve for “diagnosis” of the interests of professionals in the region so that it may be possible to set up a plan for a long-term partnership to be extended to other Arab countries.
*Translated by Mark Ament
