JEDDAH: Dr. Maram Al-Otaibi is an assistant professor and consultant in molecular genetics at Medical City at King Saud University (her alma mater), where she has worked since June 2017. Al-Otaibi has been a passionate advocate for health education since her university days. As an undergraduate, she gave first-aid classes to high-school students and volunteered for the Charitable Health Society for Patient Care, as well as participating in a patient counseling competition and helping to organize the Pharmacy Club. After graduating with a degree in clinical pharmacy in 2015, Al-Otaibi spent time interning at Prince Sultan Military Medical City, King Saud Medical City, and the Security Forces Hospital, before she took a job as a pharmacist at King Saud Medical City in 2016. She was promoted to acting supervisor of in-patient pharmacies the following year, before beginning her current job. Speaking at the first Jubail Health Conference on Thursday, in a session on sickle cell anemia, Al-Otaibi said that research confirms an urgent need to change current protocols and controls to create more effective examination programs. She also suggested a national registry system should be implemented to establish a database of alpha and beta thalassemia (an inherited blood disorder similar to sickle cell disease). Sickle cell disease is on the increase, and experts at the conference stressed the importance of raising public awareness of a disorder that affects 300,000 newborns every year, and of measures that can help prevent it.