00:00The passion of surgery started since I was a child actually. I loved helping people.
00:09My name is Dr. Sara Elbestaki, consultant colorectal surgeon in Sheikh Khalifa Medical
00:14City, Abu Dhabi. I'm also the division head of general surgery. In addition to that,
00:19I am actually president of Emirates Society of Colon and Rectal Surgery.
00:24Tell us about your journey and how you've reached where you are today.
00:29The passion of surgery started since I was a child actually. I loved helping people. When we
00:36were children, we liked to play around with the kits of medical tools and all this, so I knew
00:42that I liked to work with my hands. What motivated me when my sister, Dr. Sara Elbestaki, actually
00:48she traveled to Ireland to pursue her medical career. This was really a highlight for me
00:54and my mother, who always supported all of her children to be one of the pioneers to serve this
01:02country. So she invested in all of us. When I finished my high school, I went to Royal College
01:08of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, and I stayed there for eight years and I even worked there. Then I
01:16came back to pursue more in a surgical career. So the thing is, we didn't have as much residency
01:24program established, so my country supported us to travel abroad to get the experience from
01:32expertise abroad. So I went to Germany. I did my surgical residency program there. I had to learn
01:38German language. It was tough, but it was beautiful. I finished that, then I did a fellowship in UK,
01:44United Kingdom in colorectal surgery. Then I came back in 2018 and I started my job in one of my
01:52very well-known hospitals, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi. It's one of the largest hospitals
01:57in Abu Dhabi. Can you tell us about the awareness that is building on rectal cancer? For example,
02:04not much is said about that. The awareness, as you're aware, that Abu Dhabi is the first city
02:11who started to do colorectal screening program at the age of 40. Usually other countries, they start
02:18from 45, 50. So Abu Dhabi is the first in the world because we have high prevalence of colorectal
02:25cancers among people in Abu Dhabi and UAE. So we said prevention is better than cure, so we needed
02:32to go a bit younger to do the screening. And the screening program is really simple. It's either
02:39you do a fit test, which is a tool sample to be given and you can detect it in laboratory,
02:46or you do a colonoscopy. The second thing, what my part came, like I wanted to build up a society.
02:53I'm a founder of Emirates Colorectal Surgery Society and this is under the umbrella of
03:02Emirates Medical Association. Why I started this society? It's because I needed to enhance
03:08our surgeons to know more about how to implement the updated management for patients who have
03:16colorectal diseases. So if you have a society, you can connect with other expertise around
03:23the world. You can connect with pioneers. You can bring them. For example, I'm going to
03:29have a congress in March, which will be the first Emirates International Colorectal Surgery
03:34Congress. And I'm going to bring people from Gulf, from the regional and from international,
03:41who are actually established colorectal surgeons, so we can exchange our experiences together.
03:49So to build a better colorectal system among the hospitals. It's the 51st UAE National Day.
03:56Do you have a message? One of the messages that really inspired, I was inspired is the biggest,
04:03the bigger your dreams, the bigger your achievements, as Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid
04:07Al Maktoum said. The greatest achievement in UAE is to live in harmony and to provide a very
04:14peaceful environment. In addition to that, I think all nationals and residents of UAE,
04:21they are aware that UAE is providing a very peaceful environment, such as laws for expats
04:29to actually to protect their rights. So we are one community and we are brothers, sisters.
04:37So happy National Day, everyone.
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