UAEU Professor Wins Medical Research Distinction Award
Professor Fikri Abu-Zidan, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), was awarded Abu Dhabi Medical Research Distinction Award (2013). It is one of the most prestigious research awards in the emirate of Abu Dhabi which is administered and presented by the Health Authority - Abu Dhabi. The award aims to celebrate quality, innovation and excellence in healthcare research in Abu Dhabi. Each year, the awards seek out innovations, overachieving performances of healthcare professionals and approaches that characterize these qualities.
Professor Fikri Abu-Zidan is a Consultant Trauma and Acute Care Surgeon who has clinical, Research and Statistical training. He has worked in many parts of the world and has been working as a Professor and Head of Trauma Group at the Department of Surgery at UAEU since 2001. During his 30 years postgraduate career, he has made major contributions to trauma management, research and education in Kuwait, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia and United Arab Emirates.
Professor Abu-Zidan contributed to more than 230 publications in refereed international journals mainly in the areas of trauma, emergency ultrasound, surgical education, and management of sepsis. More than 300 oral presentations, posters and invited lectures have been presented at national and international meetings. He has served as the Statistics Editor of Emirates Medical Journal, and as an Editorial Board member or Guest Editor for several international prestigious journals. At present he is the Statistical Editor of Hamdan Medical Journal.
Through his entire career, Professor Abu-Zidan was deeply committed to clinical and experimental research for trauma management, critical care and prevention. He moved to the UAE in 2001 and established the Trauma Research Priority Group at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences. The performance of this group has risen in the last twelve years to be one of the most active research groups in the Middle East in the area of trauma prevention, and management. The Trauma Group became well recognized internationally. He took the rewarding task on his shoulders to train young doctors, research fellows, and academic staff to perform high quality research. Furthermore, in 2003, he has established the first Trauma Registry in the Arab Countries despite difficulties in fund-raising. This resulted in more than 120 publications in MEDLINE from UAE, the majority of which he was the senior author. This stemmed from the excellent relationship and trust with clinical staff at Al-Ain and Tawam hospitals who appreciate his high standard of research skills and ethics. This trust has been built over years in which both hospitals have seen the fruits of the collaborative initiatives.
Furthermore, he is considered an international expert on trauma research experimental methodology with main expertise in developing novel clinically relevant animal models. For example, he has developed, in collaboration with Linkoping University, Sweden, the first damage control surgery model in the world.
Professor Abu-Zidan had numerous achievements before arriving to Al-Ain. While working in Kuwait, he developed a model of obstructive uropathy in sheep with long follow up. This work won the first prize over more than 500 posters presented in the European Association of Nuclear Medicine Congress in France 1989. Furthermore, He was independently running a very advanced trauma research centre in Linköping University, Sweden. This centre is unique in all Europe as it had special facilities to study reactions to severe trauma by using big experimental animals submitted to standardized trauma and followed under intensive care, hereby reproducing the clinical situation as closely as possible. Working within these models needs high demands on surgical and technical skills in preparation and advanced intensive care. His work resulted in a PhD on the role of platelet activating factor in sepsis and shock which was one of the best in its field and he was given the prize of the best guest researcher in health science, 1994 by The Lions Research Foundation at Linköping University, Sweden. He had a letter published in Nature regarding this work which is unusual for a clinician.
While working at Auckland University as a senior researcher (1996-2001), he established a model of intestinal ischaemia reperfusion injury in rodents within a very short period of time with interesting results on oxidative stress markers. The work on this model has won Sir Louis Barnett Prize of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. At present, this is one of the most successful doctorate surgical programs in New Zealand.
Professor Abu-Zidan has been promoting the clinical use of Focused Assessment Sonography of Trauma (FAST) for almost twenty five years in which he is considered a worldwide leader. International research and educational expertise in FAST has been developed. He published the curriculum of the First Emergency Ultrasound Workshop in Australasia in 1999. Furthermore, has developed a curriculum and established an internationally recognized FAST course in 2004 in the UAE. This course was then run by members of the Trauma Group in UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, Sweden, France, Austria and Italy. He is without a doubt, an inspiration worthy of this latest achievement.
