If you have never before heard of Salalah, let this be the moment when you add a new destination to your travel bucket list.
The capital of the southern region of Oman, the city of Salalah is located at the confluence of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea where it once occupied a strategic position on the trading routes for frankincense and silk. Today it is a beautiful city with rich culture, history and magnificent beaches that attract tourists from every corner of the world – especially between June to September when the monsoon rains turn the entire region into a lush green landscape.
It was during monsoon season that the Oman Stroke Society hosted Oman’s sixth annual stroke conference in Salalah this past August. This was also when the Gulf-based Angels team arrived from neighbouring Saudi Arabia for the opening chapter of an ambitious project – converting Salalah into an Angels Region.
An Angels Region is one in which hospitals, EMS and public educators work together to ensure all stroke patients have speedy access to the highest standard of treatment. The goal of the Angels Regions strategy that was launched in 2024 is to recognize 100 Angels Regions worldwide by 2027.
The journey towards ensuring that one of the most beautiful places in the world is also a safe region for stroke began with an Angels Day attended by healthcare professionals from three hospitals – Sultan Qaboos Hospital, Diwan Hospital and the city’s Military Hospital. Brainstorming sessions with Oman’s leading stroke champion, Dr Amal Al Hashmi, had already helped Angels consultant Sherif Ali and Angels lead Dr Sherief Oraby identify stroke care gaps and explore ways to implement the Angels Regions strategy in Oman. Now they hoped to learn more about stroke pathway implementation in local hospitals, convey the importance of optimizing stroke care, augment the stroke knowledge of attending doctors and nurses, and spread awareness of the support they could expect from Angels and the Oman Stroke Society.
It was a promising start, Sherif says They had only recently started working in Oman where, as in other countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, stroke prevalence is on the rise and affects younger people than in other parts of the world. But in Dr Al Hashmi they have found a formidable ally.
A Canadian Board-certified neurologist trained at McGill University, Canada, Dr Al Hashmi is the first female adult neurologist in Oman and founder and president of the Oman Stroke Society. She is a senior consultant neurologist and strokologist, and between 2013 and 2023 was Head of the Central Stroke Unit and chairperson of the stroke committee in the Oman ministry of health.
In a 2019 interview with Oman Television News Center, Dr Al Hashmi enumerated the signs of progress in stroke care in the country, saying: “We never before had stroke units, now we have four of them in the country. We never had national protocols and guidelines for the treatment of stroke patients, now we do have them. We never had specialized nurses in this field, now we have a lot of trained nurses.”
What she failed to mention was that it was she herself who had created the stroke units, authored the stroke clinical pathway and protocols used in Omani hospitals, established the local Stroke Training Module and initiated training for doctors and nurses.
An organizer and chairperson of several regional international conferences, Dr Al Hashim is also a compelling speaker who, whether on television or in conference halls, engages audiences with her own authenticity, storytelling, and humanity.
She grew up pretending she was a doctor, she told Her Highness Sayyida Mayya Al Said on the talk show #HerStory three years ago. Becoming a doctor had been her childhood passion and she later on chose neurology as her specialization because it had two characteristics that she valued – it was both “rational and challenging”. Being a vascular neurologist was even more challenging because you were constantly dealing with emergencies, she explained, but it rewarded you with opportunities to save lives.
“Challenges are a strong driver for people to work harder, achieve more, to come with different ideas, to be creative and find other solutions for problems or obstacles,” she said, prompting her interlocutor to dub her “the unstoppable doctor”.
Oman was in very good position in relation to stroke care, Dr Al Hashim told Oman Television in 2019. The country had the potential to become a leader in the region and “hopefully compete worldwide”.
The Angels event in Salalah, timed to coincide with the stroke conference, was a decisive step in that direction. As well as being exposed to the latest developments in acute stroke management, attendees had the change to test their knowledge in an interactive workshop comprising of up to 10 case scenarios.
The event was very successful, Sherif says. Creating a steering committee is next on the agenda, with a kick- off meeting to be held before the end of 2024. The stage is now set for the phased implementation of their strategy to turn Salalah into a landmark for stroke care in and beyond Oman, and to ensure that this wonderful city has a wonderful future.
