Italy’s Gruppo Ospedaliero San Donato (GSD) currently has 19 hospitals treating over 4.5 million patients each year. Founded in 1957, GSD has grown since to not only become the largest private hospital group in Italy, but is also among the leading hospital groups in Europe.
According to Kamel Ghribi, Chairman of GSD Healthcare (GSDH), the most fundamental driver of the healthcare industry today is the peer sharing of innovative scientific R&D.
Sharing medical and technical expertise facilitates the rapid development of state-of-the-art technology and avant-garde training techniques, which in turn can be extensively tested globally. Such dissemination provides the medical world with the variables necessary to deliver the most advanced and targeted therapies to patients.
In an interview with Daily Dose, he said: “GSD Healthcare brought an R&D and training programme to Dubai Healthcare City because we saw a cluster model of interconnected prestigious institutions such as the Dubai Health Authority and the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences. Having prestigious academic institutions, public authorities, the financial sector and other esteemed entities in such close proximity, creates a critical mass that allows a long-term drive in innovative technology and treatments.
“In the same way, GSD and its flagship San Raffaele University Hospital in Milan combine vocational training with scientific R&D, medical technology development and innovative treatment therapies that have made the hospital a point of reference in Europe.”
At Arab Health, GSD is presenting a new approach towards the provision of training – tailor-made training workshops and courses.
“We believe that the true value of training can only be fully realised through expert-led hands-on training carried out in small groups. Practice can only be enhanced and honed in any given field of medicine when tailored to the specific procedures that are being performed,” he explained. “At GSD Healthcare, we build our courses according to the specifications and needs of the medical professional in question and deploy the services of internationally recognised physicians skilled at training teams for as little as two days right up to three weeks.
Over and above our highly skilled training services, we also offer internships in Italy, thus giving participants access to full training as well as real practice on the actual clinical cases present in our hospitals.”
Ghribi expressed that Arab Health allows participants to get involved in new aspects of their profession as well as allowing clinical professionals the chance to enhance their knowledge by providing them with an opportunity to see how all areas of medicine are constantly evolving. He added that it is a platform to highlight the importance of keeping up with the latest innovations, whether in the realms of diagnostic and treatment possibilities or the latest patient care guidelines and recommendations.
Efficient pathways
According to Ghribi, the healthcare industry is being driven forward by the need for new treatments, new procedures, innovative technology and more efficient pathways that ensure every patient receives the best possible care. In order to achieve such a goal, he said, it is of fundamental importance that scientific academics and researchers work together in collaboration with medical professionals, specifically physicians, within the context of a clinical unit.
He emphasized: “By adopting such a strategy, GSD has been able to create innovative treatments in cardiac surgery and in genetic therapies such as tailor-made stem cell medicine. It is now our principal aim to disseminate and share our medical innovations and knowledge throughout the MENA region through the vehicle of locus training, which also provides an ideal platform for the exchange of medical data and information.”
Furthermore, he highlighted that it has now become an undisputed fact that the quality of care received is not uniquely related to the quality of the physician. Therefore, GSD not only provides top medical practitioners and hi-tech therapies; it also provides Hospital Management courses in partnership with the prestigious Bocconi University in Milan.
“Having unparalleled expertise in the field of comprehensive care provision we are in the sui generis position of having the resources and experience to train hospital management teams, thus helping to deliver a high-quality service to both patient and practitioner,” he concluded.
