Doha: A new state-of-the-art Qatar Preterm and Precision Medicine Research Clinic (QPrem & PM-RC) to assess preterm children’s readiness to join school, has recently opened at the Women’s Wellness and Research Center.
The clinic, named after QPrem (Qatar Preterm Study) and Precision Medicine (QPrem & PM-RC), focuses on the development of preterm and it is looking comprehensively at various aspects including their medical, psychological, neurocognitive, executive functioning, behavioural, genetic predisposition, and environmental factors. The aim is to inform policy makers and practitioners of possible ways to intervene and improve the quality of life and care of preterm children and their families.
Speaking about the Research Clinic, Dr Hilal Al Rifai, WWRC’s Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director, said the establishment of the clinic aligned closely with Qatar’s National Health Strategy and that Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has given great attention to family and child-centred care when designing and developing the WWRC.
The Translational and Precision Medicine Research Lab (T&PML) Director, Dr. Nader Al-Dewik said, “This new research clinic will not only assess the children’s development but also will feed the third-generation omics lab with samples utilizing this new technology. This is to discover the underlying environmental and genetic factors of high priority health concerns impacting mothers and their preterm children.”
The head of Newborn Screening Program, Dr Ghassan Abdoh, the Lead PI of the QPrem project, said, “This new research clinic will give us a great opportunity to follow up the children and their parents and look at the consequences of being premature from clinical perspective.”
The research clinic at the WWRC was opened in collaboration with Professor Muthanna Samara from Kingston University London and Professor Neil Marlow from University College London. Professor Samara said the research clinic gives clinicians the opportunity to look at the long-term development of premature children and investigate their readiness to school.
