ABU DHABI // Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, one of the emirate’s most-anticipated flagship projects, has started to accept patients.
The medical campus on Al Maryah Island, which represents one of the biggest health investments in Abu Dhabi, opened its eye clinic on Tuesday, where patients can receive treatment for conditions such as cataracts, cornea diseases and glaucoma.
Other services are expected to start over the next 10 weeks.
These will include internal medicine, infectious diseases, rheumatology, pain management, nervous system, brain and spine, digestive health, urology and kidney, dermatology and plastic surgery.
Accident and emergency will be the last department to open, on May 31.
Dr Marc Harrison, chief executive of CCAD, said: “We are thrilled to welcome patients to our eye institute and are honoured to begin delivering on our promise to provide world-class care to our patients here in the UAE.
“Our mission is to provide compassionate, patient-centred care of the highest quality to the people of Abu Dhabi.”
The hospital, developed by Mubadala Healthcare, a unit of Mubadala Development, will currently accept only Thiqa card-holders, who are exclusively Emirati, people with select Daman enhanced plans, and those who are self-funding.
Residents can ring a contact centre to find out if their plan is covered at the hospital.
The 409,234-square-metre hospital is predominantly modelled on the Cleveland Clinic in the United States.
“Patients walking through the doors of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi are going to receive the same quality of care as they would expect to receive at Cleveland Clinic in the US, which has been tailored to local needs and culture,” said Dr Harrison, who has had a 16-year career with Cleveland Clinic.
“This will enable our patients to stay close to their families and loved ones – their strongest support system – while being treated for complex medical issues. ‘Patients First’ is our guiding philosophy and shapes the decisions we make every day.
“It also underpins how our measured approach to opening services at the hospital ensures high quality care and patient safety.
“Over the next few weeks, we’ll be announcing additional services related to digestive diseases, heart and lung conditions and much more.”
Dr Scott D Smith, chief of the eye institute at the hospital, said he was excited to start seeing patients.
“We have taken the very same approaches, processes and techniques that are used at Cleveland Clinic in the US and are offering them here at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi,” he said.
“This means that our patients will have access to leading expertise and the latest technology for diagnosis and treatment.”
CCAD has 364 beds, with the option to increase that to 490, including 72 intensive-care unit beds, four post-anaesthesia care units and 26 operating rooms.
About 5,500 doctors applied for the 175 positions at the hospital, which has also employed more than 1,000 nurses and other health professionals.
The 23-acre site has five clinical floors, three diagnostic and treatment levels and 13 floors of critical and acute inpatient units.
It will have more than 30 medical and surgical specialities and is designed to operate five different specialist centres of excellence covering digestive disease, eye, heart and vascular disorders, neurological treatment, and respiratory and critical care.
Minimally invasive robotic surgery and advancements in treatments for patients with epilepsy and irritable bowel diseases will be among the new areas of medicine the hospital will focus on.
The site, which aims to complement existing healthcare facilities in the emirate, will also have a dedicated organ transplant centre.
It will have the capacity for 3,100 car parking spaces, 20,000 pieces of medical equipment, 30,000 pieces of furniture and a 200-seat auditorium.
Dr Harrison said the hospital also aimed to be one of the first fully digital hospitals in the world, with the ultimate goal of being almost paperless.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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When: Thursday, 9pm Arizona time (Friday UAE, 8am)
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
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The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old
Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school
