The Ministry of Health (MOH) represented by the Health Information and Statistics department of the Directorate General of Planning & Studies organized yesterday Sunday a workshop on Health Information and Statistics system at the Grand Mosque Lecture Hall.

The themes of the workshop aimed at raising the knowledge level of health statisticians and touching upon ways of developing the health and statistics system to reach high-quality statistical products. Moreover, it aims at directing participants towards the best methods of employing the enormous data in planning and decisions making visions as well as preparing untraditional, modern and innovative statistical reports that are included in the unified information & statistics system 2017.

Dr. Ahmed Al Qasmi, Director General of Planning & Studies affirmed in his welcome speech the significance of the statistics and information in decisions making. He pointed out that the MOH, in collaboration with the Sultan Qaboos University had introduced Health Statistics specialty in the College of Science in 1996 where its graduates will join the work force in the Ministry. The Statisticians, as stated by Dr. Al Qasmi, working in the field of Health Statistics reached 90 Statisticians at the end of 2016, distributed in the Sultanate’s different Governorates.

The workshop witnessed the participation of 60 statisticians where they were informed about the various types and design of the studies and how to employ them into statistical research. The workshop further addressed the psychosocial influence on risky driving behaviors among young drivers in Oman as well as the effect of demographic, socioeconomic and social factors on fertility in the Sultanate. It highlighted also the change in the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases risk factors among Omani population within (2000-2008).

Moreover, the new data collection forms of the year 2017 namely the forms of Hypertension, Primary health care, and Rehabilitation were marked in the workshop and the health data situation in 2016 was further reviewed.