DUBAI // Healthcare standards in the UAE may overtake those in Europe and the US in future with the development of new hospitals from the ground up.
Infant care at the new Dh692?million Al Jalila Children's Specialty Hospital, near Latifa Hospital in Dubai, will be one of the first fields to experience the significant improvements when it opens this year.
Speaking on the opening day of Arab Health, the region's biggest medical conference, Skandar Malcolm, president and chief executive of GE Healthcare growth markets, said building new facilities was an opportunity to implement the latest technologies.
"There is an opportunity here for the UAE to leapfrog Europe and the US," he said. "The next generation is going to see personalised medicine driven by new therapies, new treatments and software.
"A lot of the hospital building that is going on today takes advantage of that, making sure that information is comprehensive so ambulances have access when treating someone, then passing up-to-date data on to the hospital immediately on arrival. That isn't happening in the US but we can deploy that here."
Elsewhere, the latest CT technology by GE is being provided to radiology departments in 11 Ministry of Health hospitals.
The improvements will help address the rise of lifestyle conditions, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, as experts predict almost 80 per cent of deaths in the Middle East will be from these non-communicable diseases by 2030.
It is hoped more efficient diagnosis technology will bring down hospital operational costs and improve mortality rates.
By 2018, it is estimated that healthcare costs in the region will soar from US$80 billion (Dh294bn) to about $130bn.
During a recent tour of Al Dhaid Hospital, Dr Sheikha Al Ari, a Federal National Council member from Umm Al Quwain, found that a new X-ray machine was not being used. There was also a shortage of infant beds in the maternity unit and ambulances were in need of modernising.
Maher Abouzeid, president of GE Healthcare for the Middle East, said comprehensive training will be provided for the new equipment.
"With each machine we install, there is a systematic clinical training programme," he said. "The equipment is very user-friendly; problems of the past should not happen in future."
Siemens is also introducing software that will allow doctors to share information on patients via a global cloud database to improve their diagnosis.
nwebster@thenational.ae
UAE healthcare has opportunity to be better than in Europe and US, experts say
The building of new facilities means the UAE can implement the latest technologies to become a world leader in terms of medical technology and expertise, experts at the Arab Health Congress said.
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