The Centre of Studies and Research launched the National Health Survey of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) and their Risk Factor Surveillance on 22nd January 2016 under the auspices of His Excellency Dr Darwish bin Saif Al-Maharbi, Undersecretary for Administrative and Financial Affairs, in the presence of high level dignitaries from other governmental organisations in Oman at the meeting hall of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque.
Dr Ahmed Al-Qasmi, Director General of Planning and Studies gave the Welcome Speech followed by Dr Adhra Al-Mawali who gave an overview of the Oman NCD Survey and outlined its objectives. Dr Heba Fouad, an expert from the World Health Organization (WHO) presented the WHO’s STEPwise approach to Non-Communicable Diseases Risk Factor Surveillance. Two videos, prepared in-house by a staff of the Centre of Studies & Research, were shown to all the attendees of the opening ceremony. One video depicted the seriousness of the problem of NCDs in Oman and the risk factors involved along with a visual representation of how the national survey would be carried out. The second video highlighted the vision, the staff, and the achievements of the Centre of Studies & Research.
The opening ceremony was followed by a 5-day training workshop for the supervisors and data collectors from all the governorates in Oman tasked with carrying out the data collection.
