Words from the administration … New beginnings for the New Year

With only a few hours to go until we usher in the New Year 2016, one cannot help but reflect and meditate on this past year. To best describe 2015, the words recognition, renovation, revitalization, and resolution come to mind.

Indeed, this was the year of recognition. In January of 2015, we launched the new 60 bed extension inside the premises and named it after the late Ola Ghabbour. Since then, we have multiplied similar events to recognize our partners, donors, supporters, former founders, staff members. Whether to thank them for their contributions or in honor and appreciation of their achievements, creativity, and humanitarian spirit, we turned the Hospital into a meeting platform to reunite different sectors and people from all walks of life. You were not the least surprised to see at the auditorium a gathering celebrating the birthday of our dear friend, Harvard Neuro-oncology Professor, Dr. Mark Kieran, the visit of students of the Military Academy, and a special appearance by ‘Spiderman’ enchanting and brightening the lives of the children

In terms of renovation, we have a new website, a new Hospital CEO, COO, and new Heads for quality, infection control, and human resources. We now display a new institutional structure whereby all our affiliates: Hospital, Foundation, AFNCI, ECN, are bound together as the 57357 working Group.  Hospital management is carried out through a board of trustees, a board executive committee, and a 57357 Working Group Board.   We also launched a new 2020 strategy that is translated into goals and key strategic indicators. These in turn are being cascaded all across the Institution and linked to performance through departmental KPI’s.

As for revitalization, we gave all our support to our first group of the joint 57357/ DFBC pediatric oncology fellowship students. We offered them the fruit of our knowledge, the time and space to maximize their learning experience. They represent 57357’s new blood, the future generation of pediatric oncologists and researchers who will usher in a new era in healthcare in Egypt and the surrounding region. Furthermore, just before the end of this year, we witnessed the enrollment of the second group of students in the fellowship program-among them a Kenyan national and an Ethiopian national. We look forward with great excitement to the start of construction of our mega expansion project, the Health Sciences Campus including a Training Academy and a new 300 bed tower for which the architectural design has been completed.

But most importantly, we have been attentive to the needs and concerns of our present staff, they are the backbone of the entire Hospital operations. All through the past year, we have pursued to enhance their capabilities and personal advancement as well as provide them with the adequate tools and resources. The latest Intra-operative MRI, PACS radiology system, and linear accelerators are among our latest acquisitions. A new clinical pharmacy fellowship with the University of Maryland and MBA’s and Masters of Healthcare Management from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport will soon be made available.

Armed with all of the above, the advent of the New Year fills us with hope and a long list of resolutions. We pledge to enhance the level of communication among us, we need to see and feel that we are all working and aligning our efforts to achieve the same mission. We will seek to bridge the gap between theory and practice, putting this mission into action. We will focus on conducting research at all levels of the Institution; we know that it is instrumental in taking 57357 to a higher level. We pledge to minimize waste and protect our resources, this is the ultimate sign of maturity and credibility. We pledge that by 2016 we will increase our average over-all survival rates from 73.2% to 80%. In doing and promising all of the above, we will never forget to focus on what matters most, on the why we are doing it: our children with cancer.

Have a happy and blessed New Year!