Pink Caravan - the annual breast cancer awareness initiative that travels through the UAE providing free clinical examinations and promoting early detection of the disease - has delivered a specialist Clinical Breast Examination (CBE) healthcare course for its medical team highlighting efforts that have led to 32 diagnoses for malignancy, thereby enabling prompt treatment for the persons affected.

Taking place at University Hospital Sharjah (UHS), the workshop was held to educate 60 medical professionals participating in the forthcoming Pink Caravan Ride, an initiative from Friends of Cancer Patients (FoCP), about the latest advances in clinical breast examinations and to enhance their health assessment skills in readiness for its 11-day pan-UAE journey, which commences March 7, 2017.

The organisers of the Pink Caravan Ride, that is running under the theme '7 Years, for 7 Emirates', said that the teaching of such important core aspects is essential for accuracy in diagnosis and to maximise the efficacy of the annual campaign. "With every healthcare promotion campaign that undertakes assessments to check for diseases it is imperative that the medical team participating is trained to the best possible standard. This is especially important for the early detection of certain symptoms that can cause breast cancer," said Dr. Sawsan Al Madhi, Head of the Medical and Awareness Committee of Pink Caravan Ride and Director General of FoCP.

"Pink Caravan has once again teamed up with the leading healthcare institution Sharjah Clinical and Surgical Training Center and a number of its expert doctors to ensure that its team of healthcare providers receive an overview of the latest methods of detecting breast cancer and the key skills necessary to ensure an effective medical consultation," she added.

The training course also featured a session on correct data entry given by Ammar Akhtar, Founder and CEO of 1 Call Group, which was attended by Pink Caravan Ride medical team members from the private healthcare sector who will be managing and operating its clinics.

?On the latest technologies and innovation used during the Pink Caravan Ride, Dr. Sawsan Al Madhi said, "The Pink Caravan has come up with a data entry application that will help medical teams to gather patient data on the move throughout the Pink Caravan ride as well as on other medical screening camps."

"The application provides an easy to use interface where the medical staff can login and perform the data entry and data collection process specifically created for them. The application works offline as well as online totally flexible and depending on the network coverage as medical teams travel throughout the UAE. We hope that this will be a milestone in medical industry," she added.

Since its inception in 2011, Pink Caravan has travelled more than 1,420 km across the seven emirates. It has conducted a total of 11,736 mammograms and 1,802 ultrasounds and last year enabled 1,119 UAE nationals and 3,940 residents to receive free breast examinations. Pink Caravan’s total of 455 medical clinics has offered early breast cancer detection screenings for 41,391 people, including 8,526 men.