UAE’s first multispecialty clinic for adolescents opens in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi - Clinic at Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City will deal with an array of health concerns faced by teens.

Abu Dhabi-based Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC) has launched the UAE’s first-of-its-kind multispecialty adolescent clinic to address unique health care concerns faced by teenagers.

The clinic will treat adolescents as a specialised group and not just as paediatric patients.

“Adolescent patients tend to have different and unique needs that require a specialised model of care. Many paediatricians are also trained to take care of patients who are 12 years old and under, so there is often a lack of connection which leaves teenagers stuck between childhood and adulthood from a health care perspective, creating an unmet need in a lot of teenagers that we can remedy with a focused clinic like this,” said Dr Philip Fischer, paediatrics and adolescent medicine consultant and chair of the adolescent medicine division at SSMC.

SSMC is a joint-venture partnership between Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) and Mayo Clinic. And Dr Fischer, the clinic’s coordinator, has decades of experience handling complex adolescent medicine cases at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the US.

The clinic will deal with an array of health concerns faced by teens like puberty or life changes, dietary and eating issues such as weight gain or obesity and anorexia, hormonal changes resulting in acne, bodily growth, and issues like depression and anxiety.