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The
conference will examine ways this process can start
immediately in Kurdistan (Northern Iraq),” the Chair
statement explains
The 5th Rebuilding Iraq Conference in Washington,
DC, December 1 and 2, will feature a medical
program: Public Safety and Health in the New Iraq.
This will be the first time that all industry
sectors within Iraq and the reconstruction community
can address the family safety and health care crises
in Iraq, according to the program's chair, Dr.
Joseph Agris.
“Healthcare participants in this program are
committed to serving the people of Iraq by promoting
throughout Iraq a culture of medicine that teaches
compassionate care, supports healthy living and
encourages medical leadership. The conference will
examine ways this process can start immediately in
Kurdistan (Northern Iraq),” the Chair statement
explains.
With funding from corporate partners and private
donors, “doctors in Iraqi Kurdistan can now begin to
understand the long-term effects of potential
bioterrorist weapons, and they hope their search for
antidotes, treatments and cures will help other
populations be better prepared for attack, emergency
response and mass casualty recovery.”
Study of the Iraqi Kurdish experience throughout
successive generations may contribute to the world
cancer market, according to Agris. “Since the time
of the chemical attacks in the 80s, Iraqi Kurds in
some areas have experienced a high incidence of a
wide range of cancers: head, neck, respitory tract,
skin, gastrointestinal tract, leukemias and
lymphomas (especially in children) and reproductive,
including breast and ovarian cancer.”
“By developing expertise in cancer care and
partnering with companies looking to make
significant breakthroughs in the cure or control of
key cancers, Iraqi Kurdistan may find a way to not
only cope with unresolved historical grief but also
fund top-to-bottom improvement of its entire
healthcare sector.”
To help Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) set the stage for
this unique leadership role in world medicine,
several humanitarian, health care and economic
initiatives must first be aggressively expanded with
international assistance, Agris believes.
The 5th Rebuilding Iraq Conference identifies seven
prerequisites for a sustainable Iraqi culture of
medicine:
Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) must act now to obtain
desperately needed medical supplies and services for
all of its hospitals and clinics ¾ in spite of
reconstruction delays in other parts of Iraq.
Iraqi physicians must be trained by leading
physicians and surgeons worldwide in latest and
advanced medical treatments and surgical procedures.
The medical community in Kurdistan (Northern Iraq)
must be adequately funded to not only handle the
normal needs of a growing population but also
implement a long-term victim rehabilitation program
that restores the human condition of the Iraqi Kurd
and provides compassionate care for survivors as
well as terminal patients.
Iraq must join the international medical community
in an exchange network based on learning value, and
establish broadband connectivity to facilitate
communication, coordination and collaboration with
global partners.
A broad range of stakeholders must together adopt a
high performance healthcare information system and
use it as an agent for change to dramatically
improve the way patient care is managed throughout
Iraq.
The healthcare sector must work in concert with
other sectors, such as human rights, the environment
and agriculture, and promote new business
opportunities for Iraqis, such as nationwide
distribution of medications and medical supplies,
and information technology support for a widely
implemented healthcare information system.
Partnerships must be established with sponsors and
all forms of media and public outreach to promote
healthy habits and healthy living, with the goal of
raising the life expectancy of Iraqis by seven years
within the next generation.
The purpose of the Health Program of the 5th
Rebuilding Iraq Conference is to assist Iraq in
meeting these seven prerequisites. “Partnerships for
immediate implementation are encouraged,
particularly in the safer regions of Kurdistan
(Northern Iraq),” according to Agris.
These partnerships will seek funding through cash
and in-kind contributions from members of the Iraq
reconstruction community and the international
medical community. Funding mechanisms will include
solicitation of outright donations, grant awards and
sole-source contracts, non-profit lending programs,
micro investment funds, corporate sponsorships, fees
charged for trade events or publications,
public-private partnerships, and private investment
and counter trade agreements in Kurdistan (Northern
Iraq).
www.portaliraq.com
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