A hospital in the UAE is using advanced technology to check the vital signs of patients without the aid of a medical worker – a move that aims to help address a chronic staffing shortage in the global health sector.
AI-powered smart clinics – operated by Fakeeh University Hospital and on show at the Dubai World Health Expo – are designed to replicate the role of triage nurses. The technology is to be launched at shopping malls and residential areas in the near future.
A patient can use the service with their Emirates ID, which connects to online medical records stored by health authorities. The private pod then takes all the usual vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, height and weight, oxygen in the blood and blood sugar levels.
Frosted glass offers further privacy and the data collected is completely secured.
Once the process is complete, patients receive an online video call with a doctor to examine the results and prescribe appropriate medication.
Dr Mohaymen Abdelghany, group chief executive of the hospital, has monitored a test model at Dubai International Airport. “We started with a hybrid model, with a physical consultation room and a kiosk,” he said. “The objective was to manage that cultural shift for patients not comfortable going to a bot for care. Now we're shifting to the fully pod model, which is completely self-run.”
Smart clinics are the latest example of how technology is filling the void left behind by a dearth of health workers. The first self-contained pod is to open this year in Dubai Silicon Oasis, with 20 more set to follow.
“This is democratising access to health care, the same way you have access to your ATM or smart police station,” Dr Abdelghany said. “Of course, it's connected through a referral pathway, so some cases need to be escalated to the hospital, so clinical governance is there. It means a big part of care can be shifted towards where patients work and live.”
Global shortage
A 2025 World Health Organisation report revealed there was a global shortage of about 5.8 million nurses as of 2023.
That is felt most acutely in low and middle-income countries, with 46 per cent of all 29.8 million nurses around the world working in high-income countries, the report found.
Dr Ahmed Eissa, group chief executive of Saudi German Health UAE, has a hospital and two centres of excellence in the country. He is rapidly expanding nurse training to fill staffing gaps, but said technology would play a major role.
“The most challenging part of health care is scarcity of resources, the second is related to the medical side,” he said.
“The infrastructure of operational health care is now more assisted by AI and technology throughout the patient journey, saving time and resources.
“Some jobs can be handled with AI, such as checking vital signs, which can be digitally monitored. But there are certain jobs that need patient interaction, as empathy is the most important part of care. Nursing is still the most challenging part of recruitment, with the demand greater than the supply.”
Population demands
Dubai’s population past four million people last year and is expected to reach 5.8 million by 2040. That means greater demand for health care and, with an ageing population, the kind of health services required are also due to change.
During the expo, Aster DM Healthcare announced plans to open two new multi-speciality hospitals in Dubai, in Studio City and Discovery Gardens, adding more than 250 beds to the group’s 920-bed capacity in the UAE. Once operational, the hospitals are expected to serve more than 560,000 additional patients every year, while creating more than 675 new healthcare jobs.
There are also plans to expand Aster Hospital, Al Qusais, through a new annexe building. The expansion will add 122 beds, strengthening oncology services and other high-demand specialities. The project envisages an investment of Dh300 million ($81.6 million) and is expected to be operational in 2028.
Alisha Moopen, managing director and group chief executive of Aster DM Healthcare, said the company was pushing to keep pace with demand. “Technology is making things that seemed unthinkable possible and we are taking some of these game-changing trends to the UAE,” she said.
“Our responsibility as one of the largest providers in this region is to bring this technology into the country. We have teams in China looking to source the latest technology to make this happen. That’s a really exciting potential avenue.”
That technology includes 18 robotic exoskeletons arriving in April to help stroke and mobility patients to walk. New health scanners will also help to speed up diagnostics.
“We usually are doing 20 to 25 MRI scans a day – Chinese hospitals are doing 75 a day because they have the technology,” Ms Moopen said. “Rather than spending one hour for an MRI, they’ve condensed that down to 20 minutes. We are hungry for this sort of innovation and being able to bring those technologies into creating better care systems.”
