UAE: Digital innovation to accelerate across healthcare sector

In a world where new technologies are constantly disrupting industries, healthcare providers have to ensure that they are adopting a sustainable approach that properly leverages the potential of these technologies, experts said at the second edition of the Middle East Digital Health Forum.

Presented by Khaleej Times, under the endorsement of the Ministry of Health & Prevention, the event took place on Thursday in Dubai, with Hewlett Packard Enterprise as the Gold Sponsor and KeyReply as the Networking Sponsor.

In his opening keynote, Ahmad AlDashti, assistant undersecretary of Support Services, Ministry of Health and Prevention, UAE, said that the event will support the UAE’s ongoing efforts to improve the quality of healthcare offered, as well as providing opportunities to discuss how service providers can leverage the latest smart digital technologies to boost the country’s competitiveness in the healthcare sector.

“We are very proud of the UAE’s transformation as a global gateway to the future, which would not have been possible without the country’s proactive vision which fuels the flames of innovation and excellence,” he said. “Over the years, the ministry has invested heavily in the digital health sector in order to provide smart and innovative solutions, and maximising the sophisticated digital infrastructure that we already have. We simply want to create a world class healthcare system that will place the UAE among the most advanced countries in the world.”

Morad Qutqut, chief customer innovation Officer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), noted that digital innovation leaders are always thinking about new ideas and how they can adopt them to serve their clients better. A key challenge, he noted, revolves around the sharing of medical data. “The more data we have, the better visibility we will have, and this leads us to making better predictions.”

He also highlighted the success of HPE’s Digital Life Garage – which partners with local governments, research leaders, and technology companies – to build a more collaborative global technology community. “Using high performance computing and advanced technologies, we have supported different research efforts that are happening at a global level.”

Dr Mohaymen Abdelghany, CEO at Danat Al Emarat Hospital, shared how “societal satisfaction” is now expected from healthcare providers. This is partly because of an increasing number of technology companies that are coming into the healthcare sphere. “Google, Amazon, and Apple are all powerful new entrants in the healthcare sector, and they come with a host of new ideas on wearables and digital health services.”

He added that transformation is a journey that never stops. “Organisations need to take a 'step-assess-step-assess' approach when it comes to digital transformation.”

Highlighting a successful case study that was implemented in Dubai, Dr. Younis Kazim, CEO of the Dubai Healthcare Corporation, Dubai Health Authority, pointed to the Dubai Paperless Strategy and how it had been instrumental in digitising patient files. “Creating a paperless ecosystem and using health data to develop our public health policies is in line with the emirates' role to provide the best quality of patient-centric care.”

Dr. Haidar Saeed Al Yousuf, MD of Al-Futtaim Health, believes that the early adoption of technology can give providers an edge. However, he stressed that technology for the sake of technology is a very common mistake that many make. “Today, we are only scratching the surface of what is possible with technology. We need to embrace a lot more technology to ensure that we maintain the right level of sustainable patient care.”

Healthcare must take a digital-first approach

Having a strong foundation towards being digital-first is fast becoming table stakes, said Peiru Teo, CEO of KeyReply.

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