Unilabs, the leading European diagnostic services provider, together with the Embassy of Switzerland in the UAE organized on Wednesday the "Digitalization in Healthcare" forum at the Expo 2020 Dubai.

The event brought together healthcare experts to discuss the role of digitalization in enhancing the performance of the health sector, with health systems shifting to technology and innovation, in light of the pivotal role the UAE plays in the digital transformation of healthcare.

The forum was attended by H.E. Massimo Baggi, Ambassador of Switzerland to the UAE, Mohammed Daoud, CEO, Unilabs Middle East, Unilabs, representatives of a number of health authorities, and digital health experts.

Digitization of health ... a common direction

The Ambassador of Switzerland highlighted the UAE-Switzerland deep relations in all vital and future fields, including the health and medical domains, with clear prospects for advancing the existing cooperation.

He pointed to the areas of convergence between the UAE’s vision and plans for the next fifty years and its model based on knowledge, resilience, sustainability, talents, entrepreneurial projects, technology, and the Swiss government’s directions in innovation, advanced science, entrepreneurship and sustainable development.

innovation incubator

For his part, Mohammed Daoud, CEO, Unilabs Middle East, welcomed the attendees and pointed to the importance of the forum, which brings together experiences and competencies in healthcare digitalization.

Daoud affirmed that Unilabs's success in developing its business was the result of the innovative and creative environment provided by the UAE while forging ahead towards leadership and excellence.

While emphasizing Unilabs's commitment to leveraging its technical resources and expertise to support the production capacity of the digital laboratory system with futuristic standards, Daoud lauded the exponential growth of the UAE's health care and diagnostic laboratories sector, enhancing the state's position in the global competitiveness indicators.

Importance of Artificial Intelligence

In his presentation titled "Together, we build the digital diagnostic laboratories for a healthier tomorrow,” Michiel Boehmer, CEO, Unilabs, stated that smart health services provide more cost-effective and patient-centric healthcare, while digitization of health provides advanced solutions, better quality and service.

In his presentation on the "Future of Pathology", Dr. Christian Rebhan, Chief Medical & Operations Officer, Unilabs, stated that "Unilabs" has one of Europe's most advanced digital pathology platforms using AI-powered tools. He added that artificial intelligence and emerging automation technology will help provide greater quality more advanced operational efficiency, and reliability that better meet the needs of societies.

A very rich panel discussion

The forum included a rich and informative panel discussion moderated by Yousef Abdel Bari, Media Personality, while the panelists were Dr. Omar Najim, Executive Director of Executive Affairs and Special Projects Office, Department of Health Abu Dhabi, Dr. Mohammad Al Redha, Director, Project Management Office, Health Informatics & Smart Health, Dubai Health Authority, Michiel Boehmer, CEO, Unilabs, Ahmad Awada, Senior Manager Virtual Health, Mediclinic Middle East, and Dr. Christian Rebhan, Chief Medical & Operations Officer, Unilabs.

The participants underscored that digital transformation would shape a new healthcare landscape and pave the way for future challenges in a different way, representing an opportunity and inspiration for advanced systems to lead this trend and lead its future paths, especially cloud computing, cyber security, 5G technology, and artificial intelligence.

They added that digitalization in healthcare doesn't diminish the importance of the human element, but rather supports them with data, facilitates their work, and saves time to focus on the quality and efficiency of the health service, especially in diagnostic laboratories field.

The attendees also stated that the best global measures in the fight against the pandemic were issued by the UAE, while continuing to attract digital technologies and apply quality in practices, in cooperation with the private sector.

They touched on the importance of innovation because patients expect to receive the best health service, adding that digitization helps support efforts to enhance the prevention of chronic diseases in cooperation with health authorities, which leveraged its expertise during the governance of the pandemic stage in launching new digital health services strengthening the UAE's leading position in the health sector and cements its competitiveness.

They also shed light on the lessons learned from the pandemic in redefining the digitization and use of artificial intelligence in health care systems, expressing their confidence in government actions to take appropriate decisions and harnessing the latest health models in the fight against the pandemic.

Dubai: a digital health system

Dr. Khulood Al Sayegh, Head of Clinical Standards and Guidelines, Dubai Health Authority, touched on preventive medicine using telehealth services, mentioning that about 185,000 patients benefited from the smart clinic service within two years.

Al Sayegh underlined DHA's commitment to developing a sustainable and renewable platform that would benefit the community with long-term health benefits. She said, "Thanks to the forward-looking vision of our leadership, today we at the DHA are forging ahead towards building an advanced health system powered by digitalization.