Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 07 February 2018 –   Delegates at the MEDLAB Exhibition & Congress, the world’s leading event for laboratory management and diagnostics, which continues until 8th February at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre, today engaged in the array of CME accredited conferences. A special emphasis was placed on Cardiology, Endocrinology, Tumour Markers and Clinical Microbiology. Attendees also had the opportunity to join leading companies, including Accelerate Diagnostics and National Reference Laboratory, for their workshops to hear first-hand about the latest medical laboratory innovations.

Clinical conferences continued to address today’s key healthcare issues. Cardiovascular disease has been the centre of attention in the healthcare sector for several years now as it is the leading cause of death globally. In addition, the complexity of cardiovascular diseases presents cardiology professionals with a myriad of challenges when considering disease prevention, evaluation and treatment. Opened by Professor Alawi Alsheikh-Ali, Dean – College of Medicine, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid, University of Medicine and Health Sciences, the Cardiology Conference provided an engaging opportunity for cardiovascular specialists to expand their knowledge and enhance their expertise. MEDLAB offered global and regional field leaders an opportunity to present a comprehensive review of new guidelines in the prevention and management of the disease and share contemporary and novel clinical techniques and strategies.

As most endocrine diseases are considered chronic disorders requiring life-long diagnostic testing to monitor and manage the disease, the medical specialty of endocrinology is more dependent on laboratory testing than any other specialty. New to MEDLAB for 2018, the Endocrinology Conference, a must-attend for everyone involved in the diagnoses and development of endocrine disorders, provided an interactive interpretation of complex endocrine disorders relevant for both specialists and non-specialists. Opening the conference, Dr Mario Skugor, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Cleveland Clinic stated: “Clinical path and laboratory path should interact more. In my experience, many clinicians don’t know the basics of laboratory medicine, so exchange of knowledge between these two groups of healthcare professionals can only bring benefits to clinical outcomes. MEDLAB has recognised this need and it is on the right path to address this issue, but we all need to do more.”

The third day of MEDLAB saw significant attendance to the Clinical Microbiology Conference which focused on the latest developments in microbiology and immunology and the role of a medical laboratory in both the management of infectious diseases and epidemiology of infections. Leading the conference, Dr. Mansour Al Zarouni, Member, General Secretariat Committee, Sultan Bin Khalifa International Thalassemia Award (SITA), Dubai, stated: “Clinical Microbiology conference welcomed distinguished international speakers that presented their latest research, thus directly impacting field advancements in the UAE and the region. Delegates attending MEDLAB are very keen to understand these findings and I hope they have learned how they can apply this knowledge in their laboratories.”

Laboratory conferences at MEDLAB were enhanced this year with the addition of the Tumour Markers Conference which deals with the advances in biomarkers used in oncology to help detect the presence of cancer. This extraordinary conference, chaired by Dr. Mohanad Diab, Head, Medical Oncology, NMC Specialty Hospital, Abu Dhabi, was designed to gather oncologists and lab professionals to better understand the application of research findings related to cancer.

Assessing the achievements of MEDLAB 2018, Tom Coleman, Group Exhibition Director of MEDLAB Series said: “From both the exhibition and congress aspect, our goal was to present the latest innovations, new clinical and laboratory advancements, and most importantly to showcase how the collaboration between clinicians, laboratory professionals and the industry can advance the healthcare sector and improve the value of services that the laboratory delivers to end-users such as patients and physicians. The number of delegates and exhibitors, and quality of their presentation at this year’s edition has demonstrated that MEDLAB not only merits to be a standalone event, but also brings exceptional value to the healthcare community.”

The exhibition also continued to see ground-breaking products on show. Accelerate Diagnostics hosted a symposium on ‘Fast phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility testing, where distinguished speakers shared their experiences and perspectives on analytical performance, clinical value and implementation in sepsis management initiatives using the Accelerate Pheno™. On the side-lines of the Symposium chair Dr Tariq Al-Musawi, King Fahad University Hospital, KSA stated: 'Scientific events such as MEDLAB bring educational activities to the region and this can only enhance quality and standard of care for patients.'

Workshop co-chair Dr Wail Ali Bajhmom, King Fahd Hospital Jeddah added: 'Clinicians and laboratory professionals should be one team. We need to collaborate because patient health is the more important than cost of care.'

One of the pioneers in the laboratory industry, Snibe Diagnostics, a biomedical company specialised in immunoassay product, showcased its latest innovations during MEDLAB., including MAGLUMI™ 800 CLIA system providing the most comprehensive chemiluminescence immunoassay test menu around in the world with more than 154 parameters such as Thyroid, Fertility, Tumour markers, Cardiac, TORCH, and Bone metabolism. Commenting on Snibe’s participation at MEDLAB, Vice President Lucy Liu stated: “We believe this is a good beginning, as increasing number of Snibe’s high-quality products are continuing to be declared FDA cleared.”

Beckman Coulter, which develops, manufactures and markets products that simplify, automate and innovate complex biomedical testing, to is sharing at MEDLAB updates in the technologies used as well as upcoming industry trends with its customers. This year’s Platinum Sponsor displayed the latest innovations, such as the Power express laboratory automation, the AU 5800 high volume chemistry analyser, the DXC 700 AU chemistry analyser and the DXH 900 haematology analyser.