KHALED AL KHAWALDEH (ABU DHABI)
Thousands of health professionals shuffled into the Dubai World Trade Centre on Monday for the opening day of Arab Health Week, one of the region's largest healthcare conferences. With thousands of stands, each exhibiting the latest in medical tools and products, this year's edition comes at a time when the sector is evolving faster than ever before.
Vivek Kanade, Managing Director, Siemens Healthineers, Middle East and Africa, has been a regular at the annual conference. He told Aletihad that the event has grown in scope and participation and has become a centre for health innovation.
"The UAE has always been a financial hub. And similarly, when it comes to healthcare, the adoption here is faster than many other places," he said on the sidelines of conference.
"We see quick adoption of technology, of solutions like digitisation and artificial intelligence, all of this, that's why this place is really like a beacon for us."
Earlier, Siemens Healthineers, which manufactures advanced diagnostic tools, machines and therapy units, had launched their latest "photon counting" technology, which allows more detailed medical imaging than ever before.
He said the technology would completely revolutionise medical imaging, allowing doctors to accurately detect cancers earlier and see through calcium build-up in arteries.
"It's just like in a camera, there is a technology shift from earlier. If you go from 1 megapixel to 10 megapixels, that's incremental. If I suddenly say 1 terapixel, it's a complete technology leap, and that is what we are seeing here, sharper imaging than ever before," he explained.
"If your technology is able to diagnose accurately and much faster, it will benefit the patient but also the health system, especially as the amount of time spent in hospital beds is reduced."
Kanade noted that the hardware would work hand in hand with AI, increasing the accuracy of data available to the latest software being used in the industry.
Elsewhere, at Arab Health Week, Digital and AI conference, Angel Martin, the Head of Digital Health Advocacy EMEA at Johnson & Johnson was discussing a new landmark white paper that seeks to regulate and standardise AI in health care across the region.
"The effect AI could have on certain countries in the Middle East is substantially significant. It's outstanding, "he said.
"Therefore, the opportunity is huge, and we have to ask how we can leverage that opportunity."
Analysing international case studies, the paper, which is being released, Mecomed, an industry body that represents health care companies in the region, hopes to create a framework that can be adopted by governments to ensure the sustainable and responsible use of AI going forward.
"We really need to make sure that AI is equitable and successful. But we also need to have a framework which forces innovation, protects it and has the adequate data, governance," he explained.
"The two big aspects that arise are bias and patient anxiety. The next stage will require us to solve these issues to see AI really start to [evolve]."