|
Founding of the Palestinian
Cleft Society
The Palestinian Cleft Society was founded on December 9th, 2007. The inaugural meeting was held
at the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah.
Over 100 people attended
the meeting. The Palestinian Minister of Health, Anan Masri, spoke briefly, as did multiple speakers from the West Bank,
and Gaza, as well as from the United States and Europe. In all there were 15 speakers, with topics ranging from surgical
techniques for repair of the cleft lip and palate, timing for alveolar bone grafting, the need for careful speech therapy
following palate repair, as well as orthodontic and dental care of patients with cleft lip and palate.
The meeting was sponsored by SmileTrain, the Palestine Children’s Relief
Fund (PCRF), and the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and was considered a major success. On-going work of the Palestinian
Cleft Society has included creation of the PCS website, which was launched in April 2008. A Cleft Standards Conference
and a Cleft Registry Conference have been arranged on May 10th at the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah. The Cleft Standards
Conference will discuss minimal standards for all disciplines associated with care for children with clefts on the West Bank
and Gaza. The meeting will include Pediatricians, Pediatric Dentists, Orthodontists, Oral Maxillofacial surgeons, Otolaryngologists,
Plastic Surgeons, Pediatric Surgeons, Psychologists, Hospital Administrators, and Business leaders. The Cleft Registry
Conference will discuss the need to form a database for all children with clefts on the West Bank and Gaza.
The next meeting of the Palestinian Cleft Society will be December 6, 2008.
The plan will be to focus on Speech Outcomes after Cleft Palate Repair. We look forward to seeing you at the meeting.
|
