Hamad Medical Corporation gets award of excellence

The Hamad Medical Corporation has been honoured with the ‘Award of Excellence’ at the Twin Birth Study International Collaborator’s meeting held in May in Toronto, Canada, for achieving the status of best recruitment centre. The HMC came on top at the international scientific meet among more than 100 centres worldwide, which are participating in a multi-centre international research project. The meeting was attended by principal investigators and trial co-ordinators from the 20 countries involved in the Twin Birth Study (TBS), which includes countries in Europe, North America, South America, Australia, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The TBS is the first large randomised controlled trial that has been done to compare the efficacy and safety of the two modes of delivery – normal vaginal delivery and Caesarean section – in twin pregnancies where both the foetuses are in cephalic or head-first presentation (the normal foetal position to come down the birth canal). The TBS also compares the effects of both modes of delivery on maternal and neonatal outcomes. The TBS trial was initiated in 2004 and its first phase finished in 2011. The second phase is expected to be completed by 2013. HMC senior consultant neonatologist at Women’s Hospital, Dr Sajjad Rahman, who is the regional principal investigator of TBS trial, was present at the occasion and received the award on behalf of HMC. Dr Rahman commended the efforts of his research team, saying: “The TBS trial would not have been the success that it became without the tireless efforts of Dr Amal al-Jasim, co-ordinator of the trial in Qatar, along with the team of obstetricians at Women’s Hospital.”