Apollo Hospitals Group, one of the world’s largest integrated healthcare providers, has concluded Continuous Medical Education (CME) training aimed at improving the medical practices of Nigerian health professionals. The two-day sessions were held in Lagos and Benin City.

The training featured three topical sessions in surgical procedure of knee replacement, amendment of heart failure and management of post-renal transplant. It was conducted by Dr. Muhammed Sehar, Senior Consultant, Joint Replacement Surgeon; Dr Sunil Modi, Senior Cardiology Consultant Surgeon; and Dr Vijaya Rajakumari, Senior Kidney Transplantation Consultant Surgeon, all of Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi.

Dr. Modi described heart failure as a complex clinical syndrome characterised by abnormalities of left ventricular function and neuro-humoral regulation, accompanied by effort intolerance, fluid retention and reduced longevity. He further explained that heart failure is not a disease but that diseases such as high blood pressure, heart attack, diabetics, infection of the heart muscles and rheumatism could all lead to failure of the heart.

“Treating heart failure helps to relieve symptoms, helps to reduce exacerbations and helps to improve survival,” Dr. Modi said while referring to hypertension as the number one silent killer of mankind because the most common symptom is “no symptom,” and the most common reason “is no reason.” He blamed the seemingly helpless situation on lack of awareness.

Dr. Rajakumari, while giving a critical insight of kidney transplant among patients, explained that 50 per cent of patients were either diabetic or hypertensive. In her words: “If you look at these adults, the other 50 per cent will either be chronic nephritis or nephropathies. Lupus erythematosus is most common in children, some of whom are born with small kidneys. That is when they develop kidney failure.”

Dr. Oluwabusuyi Abu, one of the participants at the CME training, expressed satisfaction with the session and thanked the organisers for the initiative. He said: “Kudos to Apollo Hospitals and Diamond Helix for this initiative. The session was well organised and the speakers were right on point. Within this short while, I have learnt a lot from the three different speakers who talked about issues related to our medical practice. These included amendment of kneel replacement and amendment of heart failure as well as management of post renal transplant. The three speakers did very well and I am very happy about that.”

Dr. Gertrude Ogunkeye said that, based on what she benefitted from the programme, she would talk to all the adults that she knows to go for medical check-up. She further said: “Make sure you are not hypertensive, make sure your kidneys are working well and whatever problems you have found, follow them with the doctor’s advice totally and carefully. Also, as a paediatrician, my job is to educate the mothers about taking care of their children’s health because a lot of problems we see in adults, also happen in the children.”

Expressing satisfaction for attending the event, Dr. Magaret Uduma assured: “I am going to review all the information I got here today. I am going to make sure I don’t forget any of them and I am going to put them into practice. I would also like to continue to educate myself medically.”

Mr. Raj Raina, General Manager, Marketing and Strategic Business for Apollo Hospitals, Delhi, assured that the hospitals would provide observer programmes for Nigerian doctors.

•Photo shows Dr. Muhammad Sehar, Senior Consultant, Joint Replacement Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals New Delhi, addressing participants at the Continuous Medical Education training organised by the Group in Lagos.