As part of its commitment to continued medical education, global leader for in-vitro diagnostics, Roche Diagnostics Middle East, organized an interactive session today aimed at highlighting the risks associated with pre-eclampsia, a common hypersensitive disorder that occurs in 3-5% of pregnancies in the region. The event, entitled MeDia Talks, was attended by key opinion leaders and journalists at the Intercontinental Hotel in Muscat.

The session was led by Dr. Tamima Al Dughaishi, Senior Consultant of Fetal Medicine at University Hospital in Muscat, who used her expertise to talk about a number of pregnancy care issues in Oman; including pre-eclampsia which continues to be a rising concern and leading cause of preterm birth and consequent neonatal morbidity and mortality. Dr. Al Dughaishi also addressed the methods clinicians can implement to reach a timely and accurate diagnoses of pre-eclampsia and reduce danger to both the mother and fetus.

Pre-eclampsia, which is most common in first-time mothers, is typically diagnosed on the basis of elevated blood pressure and the presence of protein in the urine. However, these symptoms are also linked to other conditions and are not generally present until the clinically obvious phase of pre-eclampsia, which is why early detection is critical.

Moritz Hartmann, General Manager of Roche Diagnostics Middle East, said: “Pre-eclampsia Awareness Month presents the perfect opportunity for Roche to increase awareness of this life-threatening disorder, and further highlight our commitment to improving healthcare in the region.

“Not only do we want to address the challenges and risk factors associated with the disorder and other fertility issues in the country, we want to support the knowledge and expertise of clinicians and empower them with options which provide highly accurate diagnoses of pre-eclampsia during the early stages of pregnancy.”

Pre-eclampsia represents a continuing challenge across the region to clinicians because of the variable features and – until very recently – the lack of specific diagnostic tests. Physicians have to determine which patient requires medical attention and depending on the test results, reliably exclude or predict the development of the disease in the short-term and confidently focus on those women at high risk of pre-eclampsia.

Roche Diagnostics’ Elecsys® pre-eclampsia test predicts the absence of preeclampsia for one week and the development of preeclampsia within the subsequent four weeks. The test result enables healthcare professionals to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations by reliably ruling out preeclampsia for one week and to improve outcome for mother and child by ruling in preeclampsia allowing optimized prenatal care.

 “At Roche we recognize our duty to use our knowledge and expertise to shine a light on women’s health issues such as Pre-eclampsia, which is a vital topic to the future of healthcare in the region,” added Hartmann.

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and neuroscience. Roche is also the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management.   Roche’s personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostics that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. Founded in 1896, Roche has been making important contributions to global health for more than a century. Twenty-four medicines developed by Roche are included in the World Health Organisation Model Lists of Essential Medicines, among them life-saving antibiotics, antimalarial and chemotherapy. In 2014, the Roche Group employed 88,500 people worldwide, invested 8.9 billion Swiss francs in R&D and posted sales of 47.5 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information, please visit 

Roche have taken the unprecedented move of being the first IVD company to have a Management Center and a logistics hub in the Middle East. Roche has extended its ownership of the entire supply chain, quality control and customer support all the way into the centre of the region. This base of operations reinforces the commitment to global Roche Standards and is driven by a full team of vastly experienced specialists offering a complete portfolio of services. With this regional empowerment, Roche has moved its leadership and decision-making closer to its customers and distributors. Roche Diagnostics also recently announced the establishment of a direct sales affiliate in Egypt to better meet the needs of the country's healthcare sector. These investments allow Roche Diagnostics Middle East to develop from being a supplier into becoming the preferred IVD partner for its customers.