A Gulf Association for Endocrinology and Diabetes 11 Years on

In 2012, a group of endocrinologists led by a Bahraini endocrinologist, Dr. Wiam Hussein, thought of organizing themselves into a body to support the profession's development and advocate for patients. The founding members wished to have a body where everybody is equal and their elected directors are accountable to the grassroots. They found ready format as a Gulf Chapter under the auspices of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE). A chapter was formed which enjoyed a successful life thought. At their inaugural general annual meeting ([Fig. 1]), they elected their first board of directors ([Fig. 2]). This tradition of democracy, transparency, and accountability was never dropped.

Fig. 1 The inaugural annual general meeting memorial photo shoot with Professor Alan Garber, the then President of American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.

Fig. 2 The founding officers and board of directors in their first meeting with American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists President.

The purposes of the body since the beginning were to establish a standard of care among physicians of the same specialty, enrich physicians with ongoing medical developments, improve public knowledge about diseases of the endocrine system and diabetes pertinent to the region's beliefs and traditions, and help to collaborate between different regional and local medical societies.[1]

To this point, the organization was usefully conducting an Annual Congress, attracting many world-class experts and successful researchers, holding regular seminars and courses across the Gulf states, and creating a journal to help publish the work of many local and regional physicians and scientists, which has just achieved its 5 years of age.[2]

In 2020, the AACE abolished all its chapters within the United States and worldwide. Since the Gulf body was registered as a legally independent transnational entity in the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, this gave it the legal cover of existence and practice. Therefore, the officers and board of directors took this opportunity to become an independent body by rebranding and naming the organization as the current Gulf Association of Endocrinology and Diabetes (GAED). The vision remains to represent the interests of the endocrinologists in the Gulf with the same objectives as the original organization. The GAED has been functioning under the new name for 2 years. However, we have recognized ourselves as one entity since 2012.[1]

Here, we give an account of our initiatives and successes from the last 12 months. After a fruitful congress and a thorough endocrine review course at the end of 2021, we continued our cutting-edge webinar series this year. We held webinars on brand-new subjects this year, including diabetes during Ramadan, male hypogonadism, and parathyroid diseases, which were attended by hundreds of doctors across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

This year's congress presented a significant challenge for us because we chose to hold it in Riyadh for the first time to emphasize that it is an association for all the GCC nations. Since our professional congress organizer is in the United Arab Emirates, and this is our first congress following the virtual ones we held during the coronavirus disease 2019 era, the transition was not simple. We chose to hold a hybrid meeting rather than an entirely physical one to ensure that participants from other nations could participate. With numerous rich parallel sessions for adults and pediatrics in diabetes and endocrinology, it was a resounding success with state-of-the-art lectures, clinical practice symposia, and meet-the-expert sessions. A selection of submitted abstracts was presented as oral communications or posters.[3] The GAED recognized three orals and three best posters with recognition certificates and modest financial tokens of appreciation. During the congress, the GAED also recognized the best three articles in its journal. This new tradition will continue on an annual basis.

The Endocrine Review Course, a unique course offered exclusively by GAED for the past 10 years, is how we close this year on another successful note. This year, it was virtual to allow as many attendees as possible to participate, and both the international and the domestic speakers found it to be a great success. We also gave registered users access to on-demand content for 3 months this year.

The GAED is a friendly scientific organization that values education and is the GCC's educational front-runner in endocrinology and diabetes. In keeping with the association's strategic goal to support webinars, courses, and congresses with a vibrant medical journal in the field, it will continue its year-round activity.

Conflict of Interest

Nil.

Authors' Contribution

Equal.

Ethical Approval

No ethical approval is required.

• References

• 1 AlSayed NA, Al Saleh Y, Aljuhani NR. The Gulf Association of Endocrinology and Diabetes is born: history in the making. J Diabetes Endocr Pract 2021; 4: 41-42
• 2 Beshyah SA. Journal of Diabetes and Endocrine Practice Five Years On!. J Diabetes Endocr Pract 2022; 5 (04) 133-134
• 3 Aldahmani KMA, Afandi B, Elhadd TA, Hussein WI. Free communications of the tenth Gulf Association of Endocrinology and Diabetes Annual Congress, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 3–5, 2022. J Diabetes Endocr Pract 2022; 5 (04) 164-186

Publication History

Article published online:
16 March 2023