Opening of second Cardiac Catheterization Lab at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City

The new "cath lab" is considered the first to provide Ambient Experience Catheterization in the Middle East.

It has been designed with comforting scene projectors, special lighting and sound effects that are targeted at optimizing patient care and comfort as well as enhanced staff interaction and efficiency.

With the launch of the new cath lab, the Adult Cardiology Division at SKMC became a regional reference site for Philips Ambient Experience cath lab, echocardiography and cardiovascular information solutions.

The new lab is one of several recent improvements in services at SEHA hospitals in the UAE.

SEHA, the owner and operator of SKMC, is responsible for all curative activities of the public hospitals and clinics in the Emirate, SEHA's long term goal is to deliver quality healthcare to the residents of Abu Dhabi equal to the best systems in the world.

The new cath lab has been exclusively designed to improve quality and eliminate unnecessary physical barriers, which lead to eliminating anxiety to patients.

It makes the cardiac cath lab a pleasant and enjoyable experience for both patient and staff.

This unique system has been fully loaded with accessories that facilitate and plan adult interventional procedures through the usage of valuable 3D-vessel information and stent enhancing tools; these additions are delivered in 'real-time' which helps reduce procedure time, radiation doses, and contrast requirements so teams can easily and quickly navigate through complex vasculature.

With division's focus on excellence in patient care delivery, the novel electronic system of the new cath lab has been designed to improve procedure reporting, inventory control, and outcomes monitoring.

Dr. Scott Strong, Acting CEO of SKMC said:

"With its combination of technology and patient-centered focus, our new cath lab is justifiably recognized as a groundbreaking installation in the region. The features of the new lab at SKMC revolutionize adult invasive catheterization procedures and help make the procedure a delightful and friendly experience for the patients and staff."

Dr. Norbert Augustin, Chair of the Department of Cardiac Sciences, commented that "when it comes to the heart, we take great pride in caring for you, educating you, and supporting you every step of the way. Establishing the new cath lab with ambient experience to our patients is a significant achievement in advanced cardiac care for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the UAE. SKMC is committed to continuous improvement of care to ultimately improve the health of the population of the UAE".

Dr. Wael Almahmeed, Head of Division of Adult Cardiology and Deputy Medical Director said "the new ambient cardiac cath lab would be another step to fulfilling our vision of leading the way in cardiovascular care".

Dr Almahmeed stated that "Invasive Cardiology at SKMC has been distinguished in the region for providing 24/7 primary angioplasty, electronic reporting solutions, and electrophysiology studies and ablations. In the non-invasive cardiology section, there was a 45% increase in the number of performed studies including echocardiography with all its modalities during year 2008 compared to the previous year. Moreover, there was another 15% increase in the number patients seen in outpatient cardiology clinic with the "no waiting time" dictated by the patient's clinical condition".

"It is worth to mention that with the recent addition of Cardiac Rehabilitation program, the Adult Cardiology division at SKMC prides itself in being truly the only center that delivers integrated adult cardiovascular experience in the country", Dr Al Mahmeed added.

Dr Nazar Albustani, Director of Invasive Cardiology and Deputy Head of Adult Cardiology said "The new Ambient Experience Cardiac Cath Lab will add to our excellence in Adult Interventional cardiology by improving efficiency and patient comfort, and revolutionalizes cardiac catheterization".

"The new cardiac catheterization suite will enhance our abilities to perform more complex and technically challenging therapeutic procedures with the newly installed stent enhancing tools and the 3 Dimensional coronary arteries imaging that generates 3 dimensional projections of the coronary arteries for precise positioning of coronary stents. During the year 2007, a total of about 1400 procedures were performed at SKMC; while during the first half of the year 2008, there was a 30% increase in the total number of procedures performed in Invasive Cardiology. With the opening of the new Cardiac Cath Lab, we expect that there will be about another 75% increase in the total number of procedures performed in Invasive Cardiology", Dr Albustani added.