President's Message, August 2009

Dear NAAMA Colleague:

NAAMA is progressing very well.  Your elected leadership has been working diligently on all fronts.  This has included working on conventions, increasing memberships, and communicating with other medical societies both nationally and abroad.

Our Liaison committees are exploring new ways and projects to help our people in need in the Arab World.  The Gaza Project is well underway. We have contributed to a major company to send medication and supplies in March/April 2009. The additional funds will be used towards other projects and the leadership of the Palestinian liaison committee.
This summer witnessed the dedication of Palestine Diabetes Institute (PDI). Located in a central location in Palestine (Al-Bireh/Ramallah area), PDI is the result of a major cooperative effort that included The Jerusalem Fund, NAAMA, and Physicians for Peace, in addition to the Arab communities in New Jersey, Chicago (PHAP) and North Carolina. The dedication included a two-day symposium about diabetes, attended by 160 colleagues, and accredited by NAAMA. The Institute welcomes volunteers, and represents another milestone along NAAMA's health infrastructure building efforts.  A detailed article will appear in the upcoming issue of Al-Hakeem.

The Syria Liaison Committee has initiated three free clinics in Syria including in Damascus, Homs and Aleppo. The clinics have been staffed by volunteering NAAMA physicians.

The NAAMA Lebanon Liaison Committee sponsored several humanitarian projects in Lebanon. In the year 2009-2010, the committee is sponsoring a School Health Program to improve dental care of students in public schools of Lebanon that was submitted by Ajialouna organization. The committee sponsored a project to improve blood banking and training for the Lebanese Red Cross. The committee supported ANERA’s (American Near East Refugee Aid) Mother and Child Health Program as well as the Creative Health Campaign in Lebanon. The committee supported Mother & Child Welfare Hospital.
An educational symposium in cardiology is planned in June 2010 in Beirut and will be held in the Beirut University Governmental Hospital. The NAAMA Lebanon Liaison Committee supported a Medical Student Scholarship Fund at the American University of Beirut and helped initiate the iCons in Medicine program in the Lebanese Governmental Hospital.

We have also extended our communications with other Medical and Arab American organizations, earlier this year we communicated with Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) for collaboration on medical meetings, humanitarian aid and charitable fundraiser.  Similar communication is under way with the Iraqi Medical Science Association (IMSA) where NAAMA for the second year in a row has sponsored CME accreditation of their National Convention.

As we have enjoyed the great success of the Andalucía/Morocco convention, I would on behalf of all of you to extend my thanks and congratulations to Dr. Hareth Raddawi, the Convention Chair and Dr. Khaled Al-Nouri, Scientific Chairman for an outstanding educational meeting, which reflects NAAMA’s mission in education, humanitarian outreach, culture, and family activities.   I would like to remind all of you that the Orlando convention is approaching and it as well promises to be an outstanding convention under the leadership of Dr. Nabil Hilwa.

Soon a new chapter of NAAMA will be starting this year in Florida and the Pittsburgh chapter will be resuming its activities that have not been active since 2002.  We hope that with members’ involvement and support NAAMA continues to grow and prosper.

Although Dr. Mouhanad Hammami, NAAMA’s Executive Director has officially resigned of his position but he is still volunteering his services along with the office oversight committee and is doing tremendous work in maintaining NAAMA’s operations.  We are indebted to his efforts and dedication to NAAMA.

As many of you know, our CME accreditation was renewed this year; however, there were some lapses in documentation and commercial support accountability in some of the educational CME events conducted by the chapters.  These discrepancies are due to a stricter new policy used by ACCME.  We encourage all chapters to plan their CME activities ahead of time and allow for all documentation forms to be completed and signed by NAAMA’s CME director before finalizing any plans for CME activities.

Lastly I would like to thank my esteemed colleagues on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors and NAAMA staff for their support and guidance during these times. 

Thank you for your support

Sincerely,

Rodwan K. Rajjoub, M.D., F.A.C.S

President