Sidra Medicine joins Qatar Open Innovation program of QRDI Council

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHAThe Qatar Research, Development, and Innovation (QRDI) Council has announced the launch of a new healthcare collaboration under its flagship Qatar Open Innovation (QOI) programme, in collaboration with Sidra Medicine. The QOI platform will be used by Sidra Medicine, a specialist women’s and children’s hospital in Qatar, and the QRDI Council to develop a device to detect the severity of asthma attacks in children and help guide treatment.Prof. Khalid Al Ansari, Chair of Emergency Medicine at Sidra Medicine said: "Asthma is a very prevalent disease in children across the world, and every year our Emergency Department sees thousands of children coming in with acute asthma attacks. We are hoping that the QOI program will make our concept into reality by developing a device that can help with both fast assessment as well as guide the treatment approach. We are aiming for our innovation to result in an easy-to-use device that can be used at home by parents as well as by healthcare providers.”Sidra Medicine is seeking proposals from local and international companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and corporations, for technologies that can provide diagnostic monitoring for pediatric asthma patients. It intends to collaborate on the development of an innovative, user-friendly device with software support to enable the rapid assessment of asthmatic patients and recommended interventions to prevent acute attacks."As a leading healthcare facility, Sidra Medicine is committed to supporting efforts to tackle healthcare challenges through innovation and research. This is a fantastic collaborative opportunity with the QRDI council that will enhance our patient care services to address a very pressing health issue. We look forward to seeing the proposals and most importantly jointly working together on a solution to help our young patients and support the standardization of care for children with asthma across the world,” continued Prof. Khalid Al Ansari.Haya Al-Ghanim, RDI Program Director at QRDI Council, stated: "We are thrilled to welcome Sidra Medicine as Qatar Open Innovation’s newest partner. Through this program, we aim to address major global challenges, and with high prevalence, asthma is an increasingly pressing health concern. QOI operates at the intersection of technological innovation and research, and we continue to play a major role in enhancing innovation in Qatar by providing a platform for opportunity owners across key sectors to identify their innovation needs and goals and connect with leading minds across the world for bespoke solutions to identified needs.”The Qatar Open Innovation programme invites local and global innovators to develop technological innovations in Qatar that address the needs of large local enterprises and government agencies. It connects innovators from startups, SMEs, and corporations with opportunity owners so that they can collaborate to pilot innovative solutions to meet their specific needs and advance their business goals.QOI, the country’s first-of-its-kind program, was launched earlier this year with partners Hassad Foods and Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation to support innovation and further expand the country’s growing ecosystem (KAHRAMAA). Local and international innovators responded to the first set of innovation calls, submitting 197 proposals addressing opportunities in water, energy, and agriculture.Future sets of QOI calls will be issued in the near future as the QRDI Council continues to collaborate closely with large local enterprises and government agencies across the five priority areas defined by QRDI 2030 to identify opportunities where innovation can drive collaboration across sectors and promote economic growth and productivity.Visit QRDI Council to learn more about the programme.