Board Member Named Deputy Minister of Health in Saudi Arabia

Dr. Ziad Memish, member of the Joint Commission International Editorial Advisory Board has been appointed Assistant Deputy Minister for Preventative Medicine at the Ministry of Health in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Barbara M. Soule, Practice Leader, Infection Control Services, Joint Commission Resources, says Dr. Memish’s appointment is a well-deserved honor.

“[Dr. Memish’s] outstanding work in infectious disease and infection prevention and control, his other work in teaching around the world—and especially in Canada, where he received much of his training—as well as his tireless efforts to bring together all the Arab states for infection control through the Gulf Coordinating Consortium have contributed to getting him this position,” Soule says.

Dr. Memish also is co-editor of a 2007 Joint Commission Resources book, Best Practices in Infection Control: An International Handbook, which was awarded a place on Doody's Core Titles in the Health Sciences 2009, designating as a book “that represents essential knowledge needed by professionals or students in a given discipline and is highly recommended for the collection of a library that serves health sciences specialists,” according to Doody Enterprises, Inc.

Dr. Memish’s appointment cast him into the midst of Saudi Arabia’s H1N1 efforts. Saudi Arabia announced its first H1N1-related death in July 2009, and Memish is helping lead efforts to minimize the disease’s effects in the kingdom. For more information on those efforts, see a Reuters story from July 2009.