Patient Relations
JHAH’s da Vinci robot has performed more than 600 surgeries since the start of 2024.
“It’s as if you’ve been miniaturized, teleported inside the patient’s body, grown two extra pairs of hands, and handed the finest surgical tools ever made,” Dr. Rizwan Ahmad says of using the da Vinci Xi surgical robot at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare (JHAH) Dhahran. “It’s the pinnacle of surgical technology and I’m always excited to work with it.”
Dr. Ahmad, a consultant laparoscopic and robotic colorectal surgeon at JHAH, has completed 140 procedures using the da Vinci system. He is part of a team that has transformed robotic surgery at JHAH from experimentation to day-to-day practice. “Our robotic surgery program is far beyond the experimental phase,” he says. “You can see this in the excellent outcomes we are getting for patients.”
Since it was founded in 2015, JHAH’s robotic surgery program has been enhanced and accelerated with expertise from Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) in Baltimore, United States. World-renowned robotic surgeons from JHM frequently visit JHAH to share new techniques and best practices.
Robotic surgery is a technologically advanced form of minimally invasive or “keyhole” surgery that helps patients recover faster, with less pain, and with little to no scarring. Robots like da Vinci help surgeons to conduct procedures faster, and with greater precision and dexterity, than open surgery or even traditional laparoscopic surgery.
JHAH’s da Vinci robot conducted 602 procedures in the 18 months to June this year, more than any other single system in Saudi Arabia, according to Gulf Medical, the Kingdom’s sole distributor of the da Vinci platform. It means that JHAH’s da Vinci robot is the busiest in Saudi Arabia.
All three awards are testament to the exceptional dedication, expertise, and contributions that each of these clinicians have made to our field. These prestigious awards are not only personal milestones but cause for immense pride in our department.
Dr. Al Garni was recognized for her outstanding contributions to patient care and mentorship, and her role in advancing family medicine in Saudi Arabia. The judging criteria for the Resident of the Year awards included academic performance, research work, leadership experience, and volunteering activities.
There are around 2,000 family medicine residents working across 46 training programs in Saudi Arabia, according to the Saudi Board for Family Medicine.
Dr. Mohammed said: “The fact that JHAH residents took home two of the three Resident of the Year awards is testament to the strength of our Family Medicine Residency Program.”
JHAH is one of the leading family medicine training hubs in Saudi Arabia. Its Family Medicine Residency Program welcomes up to 20 new residents each year, making it one of the largest programs of its kind in the Kingdom.
The 2024 class of the JHAH Family Medicine Residency Program posted a 100% pass rate for their final examinations, marking the first time a perfect pass rate has been achieved.
JHAH is accredited by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties to offer more than 21 residency programs, including Pathology, Pharmacy, Emergency Services, Anesthesia, Psychiatry, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Family Medicine.
All JHAH residency programs aim to produce healthcare innovators who drive reform in line with Vision 2030, by combining academic excellence with forward-looking clinical practice standards, global knowledge exchange, and leadership training.
The Saudi Society of Family and Community Medicine awards were presented at an event in May.