Sidra Medical and Research Center Expands Senior Team with 3 Key Appointments

Doha, January 30(QNA) Sidra Medical and Research Center today announced three new appointments to its senior management team in the positions of Chief Research Officer, Clinical Chief of Surgery and Chief Information Officer. All three appointees have left senior positions with leading organizations to join the innovative healthcare facility which aims to transform the care of women and children in Qatar, the region and beyond. Internationally acclaimed translational research expert Dr. Francesco M. Marincola, MD, FACS has been appointed Chief Research Officer. In this role he will be responsible for leading the development of Sidra s research capabilities to enable it to become a center of excellence for clinical and translational biomedical research. Dr. Marincola joins Sidra from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he held the positions of Chief of the Infectious Disease and Immunogenetics Section and Tenured Senior Investigator. He was also Director or the Immunogenetics Program, Department of Transfusion Medicine, Director of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies Center for Excellence and Co-Director of the Trans-NIH Center for Human Immunology. Dr. Marincola is also founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Translational Medicine. Highly experienced Pediatric General Surgeon Dr. David Lyle Sigalet MD, MSc, PhD, FRCSC, FACS has been appointed Clinical Chief of Surgery. Dr. Sigalet will lead Sidra s surgical department to ensure delivery of a high standard of patient focused and transformative care. In addition, he will drive forward innovation in research and medical education to place Sidra at the forefront of surgical expertise and progress. Dr. Sigalet is a Pediatric General Surgeon with over 25 years of experience in surgery, research and academia. Prior to joining Sidra he was Professor of Surgery in the Department of Pediatric General Surgery at the Alberta Children s Hospital Foundation, University of Calgary, one of Canada s top research universities. Health information systems expert Michael LeRoy has been appointed Chief Information Officer with the remit of leading the planning, design and implementation of the cutting edge, integrated medical and information management system that will be key to the functioning of Sidra as a state-of-the-art, all-digital medical center. Mr. LeRoy joins Sidra from the role of Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at the Detroit Medical Center (DMC), Michigan, U.S. DMC is an academic health delivery system comprising eight integrated acute care hospitals and over 100 specialty clinics, including the first all children's and all women's hospitals in the state. It is affiliated with Wayne State University Medical School, the third largest medical campus in the U.S., and is consistently ranked as the "Most Connected Hospital System" in Michigan. Last year, Mr. LeRoy was ranked as one of the Top 25 Healthcare CIOs in the U.S. by InformationWeek magazine. Dr. Marincola and Mr. LeRoy will report directly to Sidra s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. William F. Owen, Jr., MD, FACP, and Dr. Sigalet will report directly to Sidra s Chief Medical Officer Edward S. Ogata, MD, MBA. Commenting on the appointments, Dr. Owen said, "We are delighted to have three people with such outstanding track records in their fields joining us today. Attracting exceptional leaders to our growing senior management team has been a priority for us and I know that we have made excellent decisions with these new appointees. "Each one of them will make a major contribution to our vision for Sidra of creating a facility that delivers world-class patient care, medical education and biomedical research to benefit women and children in Qatar and beyond," said Dr. Owen. In addition to creating a top leadership team of internationally-renowned experts in their fields, Sidra is also currently recruiting physicians and some 500 pre-commissioning staff. "We appreciate your patience as we grow our facility into a 5,000 employee operation. We are seeking qualified and dedicated individuals who want to make a lasting contribution to health care in Qatar and the region and have received a substantial number of applications to date. Those applicants meeting job requirements and current needs will be contacted by Sidra s recruitment team," said Sidra CEO Dr. Owen. Part of Sidra s vision also includes contributing to building a knowledge-based economy in Qatar and helping create an entire generation of Qatari medical professionals, something Sidra s new leadership team will take a significant role in. "We are committed to providing equal opportunities for Qatari nationals. In fact, we increased the number of Qataris in 2012 by 10% from 2011. At present, 30% of Sidra s 245 project team employees are Qatari. This number will change as Sidra brings on more operational staff but we are committed to growing Qatar s talent to ensure that we always meet and exceed government-set Qatarization guidelines as we do now," said Sidra Project Communications Director Khalid Al Mohannadi. Sidra s Scholarship Program and the JANA Trainee Program for Qatari graduates are part of Sidra s vision to grow domestic talent into world-renowned medical professionals. Since the start of the Scholarship Program in 2009, Sidra has already provided scholarships to 176 Qataris (96% of all scholarships) to support their study in medical and academic fields to prepare them for roles at Sidra. It is worth to mention that the JANA Program was launched in 2008 to offer Qatari graduates the opportunity to train for the career of their choice within Sidra. Sidra Medical and Research Center will be a groundbreaking hospital, research and education institution, currently under construction in Doha, Qatar, focusing on the health and wellbeing of women and children regionally and globally. Sidra will be a fully digital facility, incorporating the most advanced information technology applications in clinical, research and business functions. Sidra will initially have around 400 beds with infrastructure to enable expansion to 550 beds in a subsequent phase. Sidra represents the vision of HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser who serves as its Chairperson. The high-tech facility will not only provide world-class patient care but will also help build Qatar's scientific expertise and resources. Sidra will be funded by a US$7.9 billion endowment from Qatar Foundation, one of the largest endowments of its kind in the world. Sidra is part of a dynamic research and education environment in Qatar that includes leading international institutions, such as: Sidra s academic partner Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, and Qatar Science and Technology Park. Through strong partnerships with leading institutions around the world, Sidra is creating an intellectual ecosystem to help advance scientific discovery through investment in medical research. Sidra will have a unique working structure with inter-professional collaboration at the heart, providing the best holistic care for patients and an unparalleled learning environment for its medical professionals. Sidra will combine the best in design, technology, operations and practices from medical centers around the world to offer its employees an environment that is at once familiar and extraordinary. (QNA)