United Arab Emirates, Dubai, November 10, 2022: Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, the International Hospital Federation’s 45th World Hospital Congress is taking place in Dubai under the theme “Global Learnings, Local Actions: Sustainable Healthcare”.

 

Dubai is hosting the prestigious World Hospital Congress for the second time.

Dr. Ramadan Al Blooshi, chairman of the organising committee of the conference, highlighted that this is the largest gathering of global healthcare professionals to take place in Dubai after COVID-19. 

 

He said: “We are keen to study the outcomes and recommendations of this congress to take into view short-term and long-term strategies we can implement in Dubai with an aim to make healthcare more accessible, to empower patients to monitor their basic health markers through technology, to move more towards precision medicine, to ensure we implement technologies such as AI and Metaverse with an aim to transform healthcare for the better and to ensure we look closely at sustainability to reduce the carbon footprint of the health sector on the globe.

“COVID-19 clearly showed the world that innovation and use of technology is possible and scalable in a short period of time, moreover it demonstrated the benefits of technology such as telemedicine in the health sector.”

 

Al Blooshi said that the idea is to take those learnings forward and to develop strategies for Dubai that will further improve patient care as well as empower patients in a manner where they move more towards preventative care rather than care after disease diagnosis.

 

Al Blooshi highlighted some of the future trends he envisions for Dubai’s health sector. They include: 

1. Increased AI adoption and Metaverse in healthcare

2. Personalized healthcare and precision medicine

3. Growth of wearable devices and more health tracking 

4. Telemedicine and virtual healthcare

5. Focus on mental health and wellbeing 

6. Incentivizing health and wellbeing at the corporate level 

7. Regulatory changes to keep up-to-date with digital health 

8. Public Health will remain an area of focus in a post-pandemic era 

9. Increase in in-home care and home follow-up care especially for geriatric patients 

10. Stronger cooperation and collaboration between global healthcare organizations 

 

The ongoing congress concludes tomorrow and discusses key themes including sustainability in healthcare.