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Overview

The Kuwait Association of Rheumatology (KAR) was established in 1995 by Dr. Khalid Al-Jarallah, Dr. Khalid Al-Saeed and Dr. Adel Al-Awadhi. It has been renewed several times since then and has been chaired by different rheumatologists. The current board includes four members, Dr Fatima Botaiban, president, Dr Muna Al Mutairi, vice president, Dr Ahmed Al Enizi, member and Dr Noura Al-Mutairi, member. KAR currently represents 35 qualified adult and paediatric rheumatologists in Kuwait, the vast majority being trained in North America and a few from UK and Saudi Arabia. In addition, there is a number of rheumatologists in training abroad to cover the increasing demand of such specialty. All major government hospitals in Kuwait at present have a recognized rheumatology unit. Each unit includes senior and junior staff who look after rheumatology patients in the specific district covered by their hospital. KAR mainly aims at improving the standard of care provided to rheumatology patients in Kuwait as well as raising the bar for KAR among other regional and international rheumatology societies in The World. Since the creation of KAR, many goals and achievements have been established. They include raising awareness of rheumatic diseases in Kuwait to both public and physicians of different specialties. This includes campaigns, lectures, workshops and booklets. Other activities include

01
Celebrating the World’s Arthritis Day annually



02
Updating the local rheumatologists with the recent advances in this field



03
Collaborating with other rheumatology organization in other parts of the World by contributing in conferences, in researches and in setting up recommendations and guidelines
04
Inviting visiting professors to exchange experience




05
Regulating the consumption and ensure the availability of medications for Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis in collaboration with the medical stores, The Ministry of Health and charity organizations
06
Establishing rheumatology patients support group such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and Behcet support groups



07
Reviewing the terminology of different diseases in Arabic

08
Establishing guidelines for the practice and the treatment of different diseases such as RA, PsA and SpA
09
Providing an educational channel for the public through social media

10
Educational programs for the rheumatology nurses


11
Attending conferences regularly to ensure the quality of practice in Kuwait


12
Maintain a regular meeting of the adult and the paediatric rheumatologists to exchange experience and enhance their knowledge
13
Encouraging researches by creating The Kuwait Registry for Rheumatic Diseases (KRRD) which is the first and the biggest registry for rheumatoid arthritis in The Middle East.