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Tribune News Network
Doha
SIDRA Medical and Research Center (Sidra) on Sunday announced the appointment of Dr Abdulla al Kaabi, the Executive Vice-Chief Medical Officer of Sidra, and Dr Elizabeth Cannon, the President and Vice-Chancellor to the University of Calgary in Canada, as members of its Board of Governors.
Since joining Sidra in 2013, Dr Kaabi has held several key positions such as member of the office of the CEO and acting CMO. Under Dr Kaabi's leadership as acting CMO, Sidra has witnessed the opening of the Outpatient Clinic and the opening plan for the phasing-in of the Inpatient Services. He has also led the Pediatric Clinical Planning Group and the formation of the National Plan for Pediatric Services. Dr Kaabi is also an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Weill Cornel Medical College in Qatar.
Dr Cannon is the eighth president and vice-chancellor of the University of Calgary in Canada. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Canadian Academy of Engineering and the US Institute of Navigation, as well as an elected foreign associate of the National Academy of Engineering. An expert in geomatics engineering and a professional engineer, Dr Cannon's research has been on the forefront of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) since 1984 in both industrial and academic environments, and she has commercialised technology to over 200 agencies worldwide.
Speaking about the appointments, Lord Darzi of Denham, the Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors and the Chair of the Executive Committee at Sidra said,"We are very pleased to have innovative leaders from the healthcare and academic sector like Dr Abdulla al Kaabi and Dr Elizabeth Cannon join the Sidra board. Their appointments come at an exciting time of growth and development at Sidra. Dr Kaabi's contribution towards building the healthcare sector in Qatar will play an important role in shaping Sidra's services to the community and beyond. Dr Cannon's guidance will be valuable to Sidra's strategy in developing our own innovation programmes as well as academic pursuits and partnerships."
Nationally, Dr Kaabi is recognised for his sizeable contributions to healthcare and has held several key administrative and clinical leadership roles in Qatar. He established Qatar's pediatric renal transplant programme and set up the country's first pediatric hemodialysis unit at HMC. He sits on the board of Qatar Biobank and the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners, the sole authority responsible for the regulating of all healthcare practitioners working in both governmental and private healthcare sectors in Qatar. In April 2016, Dr Kaabi became a board member of the Joint Oversight Board of the University of Calgary in Qatar.
Dr Cannon's work has been recognised with many national and international honours including the Johannes Kepler Award from the US Institute of Navigation, APEGA's Centennial Leadership Award and the Gold Medal Award from Engineers Canada in 2013. Prior to her appointment as president, Dr Cannon was dean of the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary.
