Recently, Clemenceau Medicine (CMC) Beirut, Lebanon, was honoured as one of the ‘Top 100 smart hospitals’ in the world by Newsweek. CMC started in Beirut as a single hospital 22 years ago, said its co-founder, Mounes Kalaawi, who is also the Chairman and Group CEO, Clemenceau Medicine International, on the sidelines of Arab Health. 

For the last 20 years, the hospital has been affiliated with Johns Hopkins and was one of the first in the region to do so. From then on, CMC Beirut became a success story and has become a regional centre rather than a local one that attracts physicians from all over the world to work on a new concept of healthcare delivery based on high-end technology, top physician expertise who can bring the best of medicine from the U.S. back to the region, and an environment providing the latest technology and new modalities of treatment. This is offered under a healthcare system that focuses on equality, safety, and patient experience. 

In a few years, the hospital expanded and opened outpatient facilities, a cancer centre, housing the latest technology, in addition to increasing bed capacity, followed by the launch of Clemenceau Medicine International.

Kalaawi said: “We work hard to provide our patients comfort and five-star services, which can decrease the trauma experienced during an illness and enhance the journey of the patients and their family when they are in the hospital. Along with Johns Hopkins, we work together to develop a system that fits our community, society, and region.

“Networking and collaboration between medical centres regionally and globally enable a positive outcome when it comes to the quality of medical services provided and offer patients the medical treatment and services they deserve.”

Clemenceau Medicine International is working on expanding healthcare quality for the entire region. “We started working on several projects in different capitals of the GCC world. Today, we are in Dubai and Riyadh and will soon be in Cairo. We also have plans to open in London.”

CMC Dubai is one of the most modern hospitals in the Emirate. It attracts highly qualified physicians from different medical schools and universities around the world, in addition to high-quality nursing staff. 

“We strongly believe in the vision of the UAE and Dubai in becoming the number one destination for medical travel from all over the world,” said Kalaawi. “With the support of the government and the vision of the leadership, this will be a reality soon. The UAE provides one of the finest medical services to its citizens and residents in addition to attracting foreign patients. We will continue working to make Dubai a hub for medical travel.”

When asked about how digital health improves patient outcomes, he said that telemedicine and artificial intelligence are necessary for today’s medical services. “You can’t build a hospital that is not smart. So, telemedicine and artificial intelligence are not a luxury but a necessity today.”

CMC Dubai is also focusing on specialities such as oncology and robotic surgery. In fact, the hospital started its robotic surgery programme six months ago. There are also plans to expand its neuroscience services in the near future. 

In conclusion, he said that CMC has participated at Arab Health for many years and this edition particularly puts Dubai as a top destination on the global map of healthcare services provided.
 

Day 1 - Monday 24 January 2022

Read exclusive interviews on topics including developing resilience in healthcare, value-based care, and adopting a humanistic approach in radiology.

Day 1 - Monday 24 January 2022

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Day 2 - Tuesday 25 January 2022

Read stories on the Metaverse at Arab Health 2022, robotics, and more. 

Day 2 - Tuesday 25 January 2022

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Day 3 - Wednesday 26 January 2022

Read exclusive interviews on topics including mental wellness at Dubai Science Park, the state of Malaysian rubber glove manufacturing, the benefits that health information exchanges bring, and more. 

Day 3 - Wednesday 26 January 2022

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Day 4 - Thursday 27 January 2022

On Day 4, uncover how pandemic preparedness was dissected at Medlab Middle East, among other top stories.  

Day 4 - Thursday 27 January 2022

 

The pandemic has accelerated a global demand for health tech solutions that can address present-day demands of healthcare. The European Innovation Council, introduced by the European Commission fosters such innovations and has selected 18 outstanding companies from 13 different countries to join the European Pavilion at Arab Health 2022. In an interview with Stephane Ouaki, Head of Department - European Innovation Council, European Commission and Veronica Beneitez Piñero. Deputy Head of Unit - Transition and Business Acceleration Services - European Innovation Council – European Commission, we discussed the outcomes of supporting high-impact technologies in Europe and the importance of bringing European innovations to the forefront.

Can you tell us more about the European Innovation Council?

Stephane Ouaki: The European Innovation Council (EIC) is Europe’s flagship innovation programme to identify, develop and scale up breakthrough technologies and game changing innovations.

Since 2014, the EIC and its predecessors have supported a portfolio of more than 5500 start-ups and SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) with €3.8 billion to develop breakthrough technologies and innovations. 4 of those companies have become Unicorns (companies which value is higher than 1BEUR) and more than 100 have become centaurs (value higher than 100MEUR) after receiving our support.

Last March 2021, a fully-fledged European Innovation Council (the most ambitious innovation programme that Europe has ever taken) was launched with a budget of over €10 billion for the period 2021-2027 including the new EIC Fund arm to manage EIC investments through equity and “blended finance”: combining grant support with an equity investment of up to € 17,5 million. In 2021, the EIC Fund concluded more than 137 investments in EIC companies, out of a total of 159 companies recommended for equity support. This represents investments of over €600 million.

This is the second time you are participating in ArabHealth, why did you bring the European Pavilion to Arab Health?

Veronica Beneitez Piñero: The support of the European Innovation Council to European innovators goes far beyond funding and it aims at accelerating the growth of top deep tech companies. To leverage further business for European innovators and entrepreneurs, the EIC provides them with access to a range of tailor-made EIC Business Acceleration Services, among them, the participation in most important trade fairs with the EIC Overseas Trade Fairs Programme.

The overall objective of the Overseas Trade Fair (OTF) Programme is to support highly innovative EIC funded SMEs accessing overseas markets and allow them to leverage business opportunities outside the EU and further enhancing their growth potential.

Based on our portfolio of companies, we have selected the most important trade fairs around the globe so we could not miss ArabHealth, the largest gatehering of healthcare and trade professionals in the MENA (Middle East-North Africa) region.

International activities are essential to reinforcing our SMEs’ growth, enhance competitiveness and support their long-term sustainability and resilience. Therefore, despite the  difficulties arising from uncertainty and the current pandemic situation, we knew that being in ArabHealth was very important.

How do you select the startups/scaleups to be supported by the European Innovation Council?

Stephane Ouaki : In the case of startups and scaleups, we support companies that fit under our definition of SME (Small and Medium-sized enterprises), they have to have less than 250 employees and a tournover of less than 50M EUR.

All the EIC beneficiaries have followed a rigorous selection process by high-level experts that assure their technologies and soundness of their business proposition. The independent experts evaluate first in remote and then in a dragon’s den approach the excellence, impact, and level of risk/implementation capacity of the companies/projects presented. The competition is really tough, 5 to 10 per cent of the applicants get into the programme so we can assure that the companies finally selected, like the 18 that are showcasing their technologies in ArabHealth, are the very best.

What is the role of health in the EIC?

Veronica Beneitez Piñero: Health topic, including medtech, is the topic that receive largest investment support from the EIC. 28 per cent  of selected companies by the EIC Fund are related with health, followed by engineering and technology (23 per cent ), ICT (9 per cent), Energy (8 per cent) and Biotechnology (8 per cent).

The challenge in the European health and biotech economy is that few innovative start-ups or spin-outs grow into mid-sized companies. This is where the EIC has the potential to become a game-changer becoming the most effective catalyst of breakthrough science into disruptive innovation.

We support innovative ideas that help society find the path to new therapies, but we also seek an economic revolution in health technologies, making Europe the most innovative economy and an engine of creation and growth of market leading companies that can offer competitive solutions at global level.

 What can visitors find in the European Pavilion at Arab Health 2022?

Stephane Ouaki: At ArabHealth 2022, the European Pavilion is showcasing an extraordinary selection of 18 of the most innovative startups and scaleups in Europe and beyond. 18 companies gathering from 13 different countries, from Sweden to Spain and even Israel. They are heterogeneous on their technologies but all of them have at least 3 things in common:

• They all have developed a high-level innovation.
• They have a clear business plan for growth and expansion at global level.
• And last but by no means least, all of them have been selected and have received funding and support from the European Innovation Council, what implies an outstanding level at European standards.

Any visitor of the pavilion can also ask about the European Innovation Council and the programme it implements. We will be happy to provide information.

What do you find more interesting about Arab Health 2022?

Veronica Beneitez Piñero: ArabHealth is the place to be to do the right contacts in the health sector at MENA region. This business exhibition allows visitors to engage with wealth of companies and network with countless healthcare and trade professionals around the region. Participants can easily discover, evaluate, and compare in just one venue a diverse range of cutting-edge products, attend workshops and improve knowledge and skills.

The numbers don’t lie and in our previous participation the satisfaction and business creation of our participating companies was very high (100 per cent of participants satisfy or highly satisfy) with plenty of meaningful contacts (454 – 5^th highest number out of 15 trade fairs).

It is also fair to say that the organisation of Arab Health is of the highest quality, and Ross …its director and all his team have made us feel very welcome and supported during the whole organisation procedure. We would like to come back.

At Arab Health 2022, Dr. Kiran Turaga, Professor of Surgery, Vice Chief, Section of General Surgery and Surgical Oncology, Director, Surgical Gastrointestinal Cancer Program, Director, Regional Therapeutics Program, UChicago Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, U.S., will discuss curing stage four 4 cancer and understanding oligometastatic cancer. Dr. Turaga is a surgical oncologist who has been with UChicago Medicine for over five years. In an interview with Omnia Health Magazine, he discusses metastatic cancers, heated chemotherapy, gastrointestinal cancers and more. Excerpts:

What will you be discussing at Arab Health 2022?

When you think about stage 4 cancers, you typically don’t think about the role of surgery., This concept has evolved over the years, and that’s what my research and clinical practice are around. The focus of my talk will be on curing stage 4 cancer. Metastatic cancer has a terrible prognosis and is often treated with chemotherapy. I am going to discuss a phenotype of patients first described by some of the scientists at the University of Chicago back in the 1990s. There is a state of cancer metastasis that isn’t necessarily fatal. They called it oligometastatic cancer, describing it as existing between cancer that is contained to where it originated and one that has spread extensively throughout the body.

Related: Omnia Health Magazine January - February 2022

In oligometastatic cancer, the patient has only a few, usually small metastases, but most people with metastatic cancer are treated only with therapies meant to kill cancer cells anywhere they may be in the body. By providing them with localized treatment, patients can be protected from unnecessary treatment. The focus of my talk will be on how we can cure those types of cancers. We have a clinical trial that where we are working on using novel ways of predicting how to cure patients. We have the technology today with which we can predict outcomes. So, I hope attending surgeons, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists will find this session useful and think about these patients differently than we’ve thought about in the past.

What are some of the symptoms people should be on the lookout for in gastrointestinal cancers?

Gastrointestinal cancers are among the most common cancers that happen in adults. Moreover, they include a broad spectrum of cancers, right from gastric to liver, small intestine, and colon cancer. So, the symptoms can vary depending on the type of cancer. However, some general symptoms would be related to the digestive tract, which would involve patients not eating well, losing weight, or feeling weaker. If there is any change from normal patterns, it is essential to bring it up to physicians for investigation. Furthermore, I want to emphasize the fact that these cancers are now happening a lot more in younger adults.

It could already be quite late by the time the symptoms start appearing. Therefore, with increased awareness, it should be possible to head off some of these issues ahead of time and diagnose them at a much earlier stage than we used to before.

Is there a reason why so many young adults are diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancers today? What tests can help diagnose it earlier?

I think it’s a critical area of investigation. We don’t know precisely one reason why that is the case. But, for instance, colon cancer takes about 10 years to develop from polyps through cancer. So, it’s strange to see young adults between the ages of 15 to 18 diagnosed with colon cancer. The question is, are they getting cancer at the ages of four or five? What are we doing differently now? I think it’s easy to blame processed foods or refined sugars. However, the science is not strong enough to say that it is definitively the problem. Based on many animal studies, there is interesting research happening in this area on the microbiome and the bacteria in our intestines. I don’t think there is one factor contributing to the increased incidence of cancer, but I would say that diet and microbiome will be the things that we’re going to have to watch out for.

Today, there are screening programs for the pancreas, colon, etc. However, patients who have a family history of cancers should regularly conduct tests and see a specialist.

At Arab Health, I will also be discussing cell-free DNA. In this, DNA can be detected at very minute levels using modern technology and can predict who has cancer or precancerous lesions. It’s also called liquid biopsy. This will be up-and-coming in the next four to five years. So, by then, we will have data and ways of screening populations, especially high-risk populations for cancer, based on blood tests.

What role is technology playing in improving surgery outcomes?

The anatomy of the human body has stayed the same for the last millions of years, but today, we can do better surgeries and get patients home faster. I think the use of robotics and lasers has significantly augmented minimally invasive surgery. It allows more freedom of movement and reduces bleeding. Furthermore, radiation oncology has advanced tremendously to the point where now these devices can pinpoint cancers and treat them appropriately. Also, the advances in immunotherapy and unlocking our own immune system against cancers is a remarkable technology.

What is hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC)? What are its benefits for patients?

When you think about giving chemotherapy in the IV, it causes the whole body to receive it. So, by the time the dose reaches a particular organ, it has more side effects. HIPEC allows giving chemotherapy right at the location where the cancer is. It’s done in a heated fashion because by heating it, you can activate the chemotherapy better, kill cancer cells faster, and penetrate the chemotherapy inside better. The application of HIPEC for gastrointestinal cancers is being studied extensively in gastric cancer, colon and appendix cancer. It is used routinely for mesothelioma and ovarian cancer in addition

Are there any patient success stories you would like to share?

Recently, we had two young women who wanted to have children and were undergoing fertility treatment when they found out they had metastatic cancer. Because of that, we ended up doing surgery with heated chemotherapy, and the success stories are when they’ve had kids afterwards. So now the kids are growing up, and these patients have the chance of being moms, which is incredible.

Also, when it comes to older adults, we have developed techniques that allow us with which we have been able us to operate on patients in their 90s and late 80s. For example, I had operated on an 87-year-old gentleman who then went on a road trip across the United States. Unfortunately, he passed away recently, but not because of cancer but due to complications from knee surgery.

How common is appendix cancer? Can patients you know recover from it successfully?

Appendix cancer is an incredibly rare cancer. The appendix, even though it’s connected to the colon, it’s is not the same organ. We are doing a lot of research to understand why the appendix is what it is and why it does what it does. Within the appendix, there are different types of cancer. Generally speaking, appendix cancers have a better prognosis than colon cancers. Understanding the disease matters, so if any patient has appendix cancer, they need to be seen by a specialist to get the proper treatment.

Dr. Turaga will discuss ‘Curing Stage IV cancer: Towards understanding oligometastatic cancer’ at the Surgery conference at Arab Health on Wednesday, Jan 26.

This article appears in the latest issue of Omnia Health Magazine. Read the full issue online today.

At the online Orthopaedics conference as part of Arab Health 2022, Dr. Joel Mayerson, Director, Division of Orthopaedic Oncology, The James, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, Ohio, U.S., will be presenting a live tumor board, where a group of sarcoma physicians that meet every week from all the specialities involved in the care of sarcoma, will come together to talk about patient cases and optimizing their care.

He said: “We will get patients who have a complicated problem for multidisciplinary input and try to make sure that there is a cutting-edge treatment involved for their care.”

Related: Omnia Health Magazine January - February 2022

Dr. Mayerson explained that there are two types of sarcomas – bone sarcoma and soft tissue sarcoma. Bone sarcomas cause immense pain in the limb, either when you’re walking or at night. For instance, when you’re walking, it destroys the bone and makes it weaker. He stressed that bone tumor pain doesn’t get better when you rest it. So, if you have a constant dull, toothache type pain that increases when you walk, you need to seek medical attention quickly to make sure you don’t have a bigger problem. Soft tissue sarcomas, on the other hand, do not hurt. They usually are a painless growing mass. So, if you have a bump in your arm or leg that you notice in the shower or when you are putting socks on that wasn’t there before, you need to keep an eye on it. If it’s growing, a physician needs to be consulted.

Dr. Mayerson is one of the physicians who takes care of bone tumors in children as well. While The James is an adult cancer hospital, children under 18 are cared for at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “Bone sarcomas are more common in teenagers and young children. Many of the bone sarcomas in our region are treated at Nationwide Children’s. In contrast, soft tissue sarcomas are much more common in adults and are treated at The James. I have two partners, and the three of us take care of children with tumors at Nationwide Children’s,” he highlighted.

Advancements in orthopedic oncology

From a reconstructive standpoint, Dr. Mayerson shared that customized 3D printed implants are coming into the market. “We are also using 3D printing to devise cost custom cutting guides. When we know where the core is at, we can cut closer and accurately to the tumor and use the 3D printed implants that are made to fill the void accurately and decisively where we’ve removed the bone or the tumor to be put in.”

Another advancement is the use of osseointegration for patients who have had trouble after an amputation. Osseointegration involves placing a metal rod inside the amputated patient’s bone. A small portion sticks out of their skin, and the skin is treated in a particular way to adhere to the bone to try to decrease the risk of infection. They can then snap on the prosthetic to the end of that piece of metal that allows them not to have the problems they had while using a socket, and they can walk better.

Research is also being done on targeted muscle reinnervation. It is a process whereby the ends of a cut nerve are sewed to an intact motor nerve. They then grow into that nerve. It decreases the amount of pain that the patient has after they have the procedure. Moreover, it reduces the risk of having phantom pain, which is when the leg is not there anymore.

He explained: “We are also now working on trying to connect integration and targeted muscle reinnervation together. You can put an electrode on the patient’s skin, map it to where that nerve that was firing goes, hook it up to the prosthesis at the end and make the prosthesis move by using the patient’s thoughts. For example, if a patient is meant to bring their ankle toward their face or push their ankle towards the floor, their brain normally does that. If you take that electrode, it knows that nerve wise where it should have been, and the brain can sense what it wants to do and fires the electrode connected to the prosthesis that can move the prosthesis the way it would naturally. This is not standard of care yet, but we are working on it from a research standpoint. I hope that it will become the standard of care for amputees within the next decade and help them walk more naturally. One of the challenges is bringing the cost of that technology down. Right now, it costs about a million dollars, but the technology is there, and if we can make progress and get it cheaper, we can integrate it into normal society and healthcare.”

Also, shoulder prosthesis has come into the limelight in the past four to five years. It’s called reverse total shoulder arthroplasty and is done for people that have rotator cuff tears that have progressed and where it’s not normally reconstructable. Dr. Mayerson said that people are moving much better with reverse oncology shoulders, their shoulders are not dislocating, and their quality of life has improved quite a bit. In fact, he believes that it’s going to replace most of the shoulder oncology surgery that’s done for bone tumors over the next few years.

He concluded: “The biggest thing to know about sarcomas is that they are complex and require multidisciplinary care. One of the things that we will be doing in the presentation at Arab Health is showing how multidisciplinary care affects patients. If someone does have a sarcoma, they should be treated at a regional center that specializes in sarcomas.”

Dr. Mayerson will be presenting the ‘Multidisciplinary Orthosarcoma tumor board’ on Wednesday, February 2, at the online Orthopaedics conference as part of Arab Health.

Physicians on the tumor board:

Joel Mayerson, MD, Professor and Director, Division of Musculoskeletal Oncology; Medical Director of Perioperative Services and the Sarcoma Service Line, OSUCCC – James

Prof Raphael E. Pollock, MD, PhD, Professor and Director of OSUCCC - James.  Klotz Chair in Cancer Research, Director of The Ohio State University Sarcoma Research Laboratory

Surgical oncology – Valerie Grignol, MD

Radiation oncology – David Konieczkowski, MD, PhD, Meng Welliver MD, PhD

Pathology – Hans Iwenof, MBBS

Medical oncology – Gabriel Tinoco, MD, FACP

Diagnostic radiology – Scott Lenobel, MD

This article appears in the latest issue of Omnia Health Magazine. Read the full issue online today.

French Healthcare, the innovative public-private initiative aimed at bringing together under a single banner all the players in the French healthcare ecosystem to jointly promote their expertise, technologies and innovations internationally, is organizing, in partnership with the French Healthcare Association and Business France, a high-profile phygital conference in English at the France Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai from January 25-26, 2022 during Arab Health. 

Challenges of the health-themed fortnight 

The Covid-19 pandemic has raised a number of questions regarding the resources allocated to health services and research in health sciences. Not every country can address the health crisis in the same way. Such an acknowledgement should drive a massive investment in essential public health services. Efforts must be at a national level, but above all collective, as the pandemic has proven to us that our world is deeply interconnected. 

By 2030, the health sector will have to face numerous challenges, including access to health services in all areas, the promotion of health professions, the fight against health inequalities, the attractiveness of public hospitals, an ageing population, and the inclusion of disabled people. 

A unique conference dedicated to innovation in healthcare 

The French Healthcare Conference at the France Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai offers unique perspectives on and insights into French expertise, innovations and solutions in healthcare. 

Page BreakYou are… 

Hospital buyers and decision makers, biomedical engineers, information systems division managers, endocrinologists and medical specialists in the diabetes field, diabetes patient associations, oncologists and medical specialists in the cancer field, cancer patient associations, local economic operators, insurance companies, Emirati and Saudi private operators, investors in the healthcare field, healthcare device dealers, health advisors of local embassies, journalists or media… Please do not hesitate to attend the conference. 

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 

January 25 – 10:00am – 11:30am – Future perspectives in health and urban planning 

The French Healthcare Association welcomes you to this session focusing on how health determinants are integrated into the creation of health facilities. We will also discuss how citizens can get involved and how we can connect cities with their inhabitants. 

A conference led by Virginie Rault (Property and Legal Director, PariSanté Campus), with Emmanuel Masson (CEO Orpea), Simon Chassain (Deputy Director of International Sales, Enovacom, Orange Group), Emmanuelle Gaudemer (Development Manager, AIA), Elias Oussalah (International Business Director, Hoppen), Yannick Lucas (Director Public Affairs Division, Mutualité Française), Miquel Lozano (President of Tesalys). 

January 25 – 12:00pm – 1:30pm – Getting medical treatment in France 

The French Healthcare Association introduces the French healthcare system and treatment opportunities for international patients. 

A conference led by Cécile David (Writer, analyst and editorial manager, Health & Tech Intelligence – Care Insight), with Guillaume Huart (CEO ORPEA Middle East), Jean Patrick Lajonchère (CEO Saint-Joseph Hospital, Paris), Lambert Montevecchi (CEO Boost Consulting, Expert for the Caen Cancer Center), Jérôme Soistier (CEO C3 Medical), Adrien Rebot (CEO Bealy) and Jean-François Gendron (President of the French Healthcare Association). 

January 25 – 2:30pm – 4:00pm – French innovations for women at risk or affected with female cancer 

Unicancer, the French Federation of Comprehensive Cancer Centers, welcomes you to its session on French innovation in the treatment of cancers in women. This session will cover both innovation in preventive and predictive medicine (i.e. personalized screenings) as well as therapeutic innovation, such as proton therapy and immunotherapy. 

A conference led by Prof. Frédérique Penault-Llorca (nominated by Forbes France as one of the 40 most remarkable women of 2021), with Frédérique Penault-Llorca (Centre Jean Perrin), Eric Lambaudie (Institut Paoli-Calmettes), Alexandra Leary (Gustave Roussy), Jean-Louis Habrand (Centre François Baclesse), Christine Rousset-Jablonski (Centre Léon Bérard), Suzette Delaloge (Gustave Roussy), Dominique Stoppa-Lyonnet (Institut Curie) and Eric Leblanc (Oscar Lambret). 

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 

January 26 – 10:00am – 11:30am – Diabetes education and prevention: facing rising challenges in the Middle East 

The French Healthcare Association welcomes you to this session introducing how French biotech companies can support regional government efforts, and prevent a diabetes epidemic, by orchestrating an efficient public health campaign. 

A conference led by Cécile David (Writer, Analyst and Editorial Manager at Health & Tech Intelligence), with Dr. Fatheya Al Awadi (Head of Endocrine Department Dubai Hospital & President of EDEC), Niven Al-Khoury (General Manager of Sanofi’s General Medicine within Gulf Countries & the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Anthony Mallet (General Manager of GCC, Saudi Arabia and Gulf Countries at Servier) and a pitching session of three French companies, with Eric Dessertaine (CEO Biocorp), Arnaud Lambert (CEO AiScreenings), Frédéric Dayan (CEO ExactCure). 

January 26 – 12:00pm – 12:45pm – French excellence in pediatric congenital heart disease surgery 

By Prof. Joy Zoghbi. 

January 26 – 1:00pm – 1:45pm – Addressing the cardiometabolism diseases challenge: IHU ICAN Foundation model 

Structuring translational research to address the cardiometabolism diseases challenge: the IHU ICAN Foundation model. Cardiovascular, metabolic and nutrition-related diseases are one of the major public health challenges and account for a significant part of the rise in non-communicable diseases related to death and morbidity. There is now a firm consensus on the need to better address these pathologies by favoring an interdisciplinary approach. As such, the growing field of personalized medicine represents a major opportunity to tackle these health issues in a new, effective and financially sustainable manner.  

A conference with Stéphane Commans (Scientific Director, PhD, IHU-ICAN), Stéphane Hatem (CEO of IHU-ICAN) and Stéphane Barritault (MSc, MPH, General Secretary at IHU ICAN Foundation for Innovation in Cardiometabolism and Nutrition). 

January 26 – 2:30pm – 4:00pm – Digital health for underserved areas: disruption from the French healthcare ecosystem 

Introduction of a complete offer supported by the French Healthcare Association, to help public and private decision-makers in their approach of under-medicalized areas. The session will also focus on how French excellence in digital health can make a real impact on a healthcare system. 

A conference led by Franck Droin (President of Kaissa & Diagonales Consulting, Specialist in digital health and public care systems), with Simon Chassain (Deputy Director of International Sales, Enovacom, Orange Group), Franck Baudino (CEO of H4D), Robin Ohannessian (CEO of TLM360), Alain Habra (CEO of Quantiq) and Prof. Antoine Tesniere (Full Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, Head of PariSanté Campus). 

Please note that the conferences will be held in the Dubai time zone (Gulf Standard Time – GST), in English, and can be attended either in person or online. 

To register, please visit: frenchhealthcare-expo2020dubai.site.digitevent.com 

France: a cutting-edge world-class player in the medical industry 

The swiftness and scale of the Covid-19 pandemic cast the light on the crucial importance of scientific and medical innovation. It also offered a reminder of the importance of global public health issues in prevention, diagnosis and therapeutic innovation. France is one of the key players in this dynamic and has many key strengths that form the architecture of an efficient and innovative health system. 

If France is now recognized as having designed one of the most successful and equitable public health models in the OECD, it is because it has long built up a training system premised on excellence for healthcare professionals, hailed worldwide for their expertise. 

France’s basic research is also renowned for the importance of its work, while its pharmaceutical industry forms another major pillar of medical excellence, through the role played by its first-rate international players, combined with the innovation dynamics of the startup ecosystems and SMEs established across the country. 

With more than 1,500 businesses, mostly (93%) SMEs, and €30 billion in annual revenues, including €9 billion from exports – an increase of 10% between 2017 and 2019 – France is the second biggest market in Europe. These firms of all sizes employ nearly 90,000 people working in fields such as ehealth, surgical robotics, telemedicine, optical technologies, wound healing, medical imaging and many more. The key to French medtech successes is innovation and R&D. With 3,750 patents per year, France is ranked fifth in the world for the filing of international patents in the medical device sector. (source: SNITEM, 2019) 

In the United Arab Emirates, France is the fourth largest supplier of pharmaceutical products and has developed economic and commercial activity, with many subsidiaries already established in the health sector, such as Sanofi, Ipsen, Servier, Air Liquide and Hygienair. 

France is one of the key players in this dynamic and has many key strengths that form the architecture of an efficient and innovative health system. 

Follow French Healthcare: 

#FrenchHealthcare 

Website: www.frenchhealthcare.fr/ 

Twitter: @FrHealthCare_EN 

LinkedIn: French Healthcare 

YouTube: French Healthcare x Business France 

The pandemic has brought many changes this year impacting all industries across the board. But within healthcare, the changes have been significant especially in telehealth. Telemedicine has been around for several decades but with the speed with which it has been pushed forward during the pandemic, probably makes it a universal and extremely positive change to happen in a long time.  

We can safely say that telemedicine is the future of healthcare for years to come. During the past two years, we witnessed it being one of the greatest solutions to access to care issues during this global pandemic by reducing the spread of the virus through decreased person to person interactions.  

Amidst the pandemic, telemedicine has also become a means of ‘forward triage,’ which is when patients are triaged before they visit an emergency department. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), telehealth utilisation spiked by more than 154 per cent in late March of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Additionally, the market is expected to rise to over $397 billion by 2027 following current predictions made by Fortune Business Insight. To illustrate the impact the pandemic has had on the industry, in 2019 the market was only worth $42 billion. While usage over time has subsided since the peak of the pandemic, it has become clear that telehealth is now an instrumental part of the future of healthcare delivery. 

Telehealth has also enabled the transition to consumer-centric care paradigms because there was a need to create social distancing in a safe environment. It re-invented virtual visits and became an important communication and treatment tool during the pandemic. 

So how does it work?  

Telehealth involves the use of communication systems and networks to enable sessions between the patient and the provider with a broader scope of clinical and work-flow processes, remote monitoring, and several providers over time. However, there remains a difference between telehealth and telemedicine even though both complement each other. Telemedicine generally refers to the remote delivery of medical or clinical services, while telehealth is a larger platform that includes telemedicine along with other remote non-clinical services. 

Connecting patients and providers 

In the future, telemedicine’s range will continue to expand, connecting patients and providers internationally as providers look to expand globally. This will not only help improve the physician shortage and mitigate the uneven distribution of physicians, but may also provide patients with rare diseases alternative avenues to seek highly specialised care. 

The advantages of telemedicine moving forward include its cost-effectiveness, ability to extend access to specialty services and its potential to help mitigate the looming physician shortage. Disadvantages include lack of available technological resources in certain countries, issues with security of patient data and challenges in performing the traditional patient examination. 

However, if we talk about the UAE alone, approximately 90 per cent of doctors use smartphones and medical apps to provide healthcare and the UAE government too, supports establishment of an infrastructure and telemedicine applications with the aim of providing healthcare services through various initiatives.  

Since the UAE boasts of a population which is younger - 85 per cent of the total population is below the age of 45 years, the use of mobile technology, laptops and tablets have a huge penetration in the region which makes it very easy for the UAE to implement telehealth.  

Key trends 

If we take a look at the key trends, we can see that there has been an increase in chronic care management recently which shows that telehealth has the potential to not only reduce the cost of a care plan, but also improve patient engagement and adherence to it.  

There has also been a greater focus on mental health. In order to continue to treat patients many therapists, counselors and doctors quickly turned to video conferencing to continue to support their patients. Hence, the development of tele-therapy and tele-psychiatry began and moving forward, this will likely become a widely accepted form of treatment. 

Patient demand has been the greatest driving force when it comes to the growth in telehealth, therefore there has been considerable improvement in user experience. 

Wearable technology and remote patient monitoring, integrated data sharing, convenient remote pediatric care as well as investments in technology are some other trends that have been seen recently. The use of digital health tools is ever-evolving which means that technology is here to stay. 

Market size and revenues 

The telehealth market in UAE is forecast to reach over $536.5 million by 2025. According to statistics, the total UAE mHealth market is forecast to grow from $86.8 million in 2020 to $222.4 million by 2025.  

On the other hand, virtual clinics and hospitals will have to strengthen telehealth system for efficient remote care but they have to keep in mind that digital replacement is not digital transformation because patient experience and engagement remains critical across different care settings. 

However, adoption of telehealth regulations and insurance reimbursement for telemedicine have been slow, at best worldwide. Access to telehealth has broken a major barrier of adoption with an increase in reimbursement due to COVID-19 outbreak. Mandatory health insurance and rise in penetration of private health insurance players covering telemedicine services are driving the adoption. 

Whether the quick and widespread adoption of telehealth and associated regulations is here to stay or will be scaled back post- pandemic is being debated, the indicators appear to be positive. As the current environment has pushed both regulators, and patients alike to become more comfortable with remote care delivery models, we expect it to become a standard offering. We also expect to see further regulatory developments in the way of: data localisation laws and providing for necessary exemptions; more robust data privacy regulations; and further guidance on the use of artificial intelligence and cloud storage in the healthcare industry. 

The connected future 

Over the past several decades, we have been hit with numerous pandemics, including H1N1, Ebola, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and currently, COVID-19. In the future, it is probable that more novel pandemics will arise. Prior to the current pandemic, issues with regulation and reimbursement have prevented telemedicine from being fully immersed into the healthcare landscape. The development and utilisation of telemedicine services is important as these services allow us to continue to provide high-quality healthcare while maintaining the practice of physical distancing to prevent the spread of these viruses.  

The benefits of telemedicine include convenience, increased access to care from a distance, especially for patients living in rural areas, and decreased healthcare costs. Studies have shown that telemedicine appointments can be equal to in-patient visits in a variety of specialties. Continued research should be done to improve aspects of the physical examination for telemedicine visits, especially for specialties in which intimate patient contact is an important aspect of the physical exam. Now is the time for us to implement these services and make the usage of telemedicine mainstream. If we do this, we will be prepared for the next pandemic and the future of healthcare. 

Last but not the least, telehealth provides the healthcare industry with so many advantages that although we are starting to see the end of this pandemic, the utilization of this revolutionary technology will continue far into the future. 

The personalisation of healthcare and its delivery mechanisms is critical to address the systemic gender and racial biases that exist in healthcare today. As it stands, consumers from emerging markets – the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia – continue to be under-represented in clinical research and trials, 92 per cent of which occur in the U.S. and Europe. As a result, these consumers endure significantly worse health outcomes than their white Caucasian counterparts. For example, women of African origin in the UK are four times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than white British women, highlighted Sophie Smith, Founder and CEO, Nabta Health. 

In an interview with Omnia Health, she discussed the necessity of growing women’s health technology. She said: “Only by building healthcare solutions that are tailored for women from emerging markets will we address some of these inherent biases and facilitate more equitable health outcomes.” Excerpts: 

How is Nabta Health fulfilling the demands of the market and users by leveraging personalised care pathways? 

Nabta Health’s broad target market is women between the ages of 18 and 58 who have specific health goals or aspects of their health they are struggling with, for example, “I’m unable to lose weight”, “I’m struggling to fall pregnant”, “I recently suffered a miscarriage and I need support” etc. For our initial clinical pathways, which focus on Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and related metabolic disorders, our users fall into two buckets, either women who have recently been diagnosed with PCOS and want to learn more about the condition, or women who are struggling to conceive naturally. Our personalised clinical pathways, which integrate smart medical devices and tests and are supported by value-based local healthcare providers, allow women to detect, diagnose and manage conditions such as PCOS wherever and whenever is most convenient for them. 

Can you tell us about certain app features and AI integrations that make Nabta successful?  

The central feature of the Nabta app is Aya, an artificially intelligent health assistant whose job it is to act as a personal health coach for women, from defining health goals, to understanding which activities should be tracked, to navigating personalised clinical pathways, from symptoms to diagnosis and beyond. While most of Aya’s decision making abilities were developed in-house, her symptom triaging, which supports Nabta app users with pre-consultation support for over 660 conditions, is powered by Infermedica, a leading AI-powered symptom checker. 

How are machine learning and augmented intelligence integrated? 

Hybrid healthcare is defined as combining the best of digital and traditional healthcare along clinical pathways to improve health outcomes. At Nabta Health, this means using our artificially intelligent health assistant, Aya, to move women swiftly along clinical pathways from symptom detection to diagnosis, and then working with trusted local healthcare providers to provide a formal diagnosis along with onward medical advice and treatment. Aya is the machine learning or “artificially intelligent” component; the clinicians and providers that we interface with are the “humanly intelligent” component. 

Sophie Smith, Founder and CEO, Nabta Health

How was the gap recognised for Nabta?  

After we founded Nabta Health in 2017 with the intention of empowering women in emerging markets to effectively manage their health, we spent 15 months in R&D, analysing the existing women’s health technology (or FemTech) ecosystem to understand where the gaps and opportunities were. We quickly realised that while many FemTech companies provided useful insights to women in isolation – cycle length, ovulation status, etc – very few interfaced with the established healthcare ecosystem, meaning women were unable to move beyond detection to diagnosis and treatment. 

Then, in the summer of 2018, I was diagnosed with insulin-resistant Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. I had always suffered with irregular cycles and had been using the OvuSense realtime fertility monitor (which detects ovulation with 99 per cent accuracy in cycle and is now integrated with the Nabta app) to help me fall pregnant a second time. When I failed to ovulate during a long, 60-day cycle, I went and saw a local OB/GYN, who ran a bunch of tests and gave me my diagnosis - PCOS. One trigger shot and 17 days later and I was confirmed pregnant. The experience was a eureka moment for me. Globally, it takes an average of 2.5 years and 3 doctors for women to be diagnosed with PCOS and even longer to fall pregnant. By incorporating digital technologies into the clinical pathway for PCOS, it took me just 90 days to get from the start of my first anovulatory cycle to a positive pregnancy test. 

It was off the back of this – my own, personal encounter with infertility (mercifully brief) – that we crystallised our hybrid healthcare model, coined the term “Hybrid Healthcare”, and raised a Seed round to build our first clinical pathway for PCOS. 

What has been the digital journey of Nabta’s development? 

We launched our digital presence (website and social media) in the summer of 2017, while still in R&D. Our evidence-based, bilingual (Arabic and English) content and health awareness campaigns allowed us to engage women on different aspects of their health from very early on. We used the insights from these engagements to inform our product development. To date, we have reached over 25 million women across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. A BETA version of the Nabta app was released in June 2020, with a very embryonic Aya, to get some initial feedback from users. Now that we have completed the device and test integrations required to support our first clinical pathway(s), we are starting to actively market the Nabta app to women in the UAE for the first time. 

How does Nabta use data to offer services/products for non-app users? 

We identify women as potential users of Nabta Health’s products and services based on publicly available data, for example, the forums and groups they join, the questions they ask, and the interests they list. We believe that women should be the owners of their data, with the freedom to choose how, when and with whom it is shared – this applies not only to users of the Nabta app, but to women in general, all of whom could at some point be our customers, and whose data rights it is, therefore, our duty to protect. 

How does Nabta offer telehealth services to users? Can you discuss the diversity of the app and how it caters to the user in many ways such as chat messenger and appointment booking? 

As much as possible, we try to work with local healthcare providers to provide telehealth services to users of the Nabta app, and to do this using their existing technology stacks. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers around the world have invested billions in their own consultation and appointment-booking platforms. As long as we can interface with those platforms, allowing women to share their health and medical data in a systematic way with their provider(s) of choice, we don’t believe it is necessary for us to add to the byte bank. For countries where providers do not offer virtual consultations as standard, we will from 2022 be able to offer Nabta-hosted chat, video, and audio consultations as well as appointment booking for in-person consultations. We have some interesting projects in the pipeline to facilitate the move from provider-led to patient-led, patient-centric care – one involving a decentralised, ledger-based system for the “stamping” of data transactions and sharing requests, but more on that another time. 

What does the future hold for Nabta as a product for women in the world of hybrid healthcare? 

Nabta Health is one of only a handful of FemTech companies focused on improving health outcomes for women in emerging markets. Indeed, we are on track to become the leader in the detection, diagnosis, and management of non-communicable diseases in women from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia by 2025. In terms of hybrid healthcare, we are excited to witness the continued adoption of our model – in emerging markets and beyond – and to work on building new, hybrid clinical pathways, with better, more equitable health outcomes for women and a healthier population overall. 

In recent memory, no other event has tested the healthcare sector like the COVID-19 pandemic, and like any other test, it is leaving many questions in its wake - changing stakeholders’ perspectives on several key aspects and functions, particularly within the digital transformation framework. According to an Accenture survey, 93 per cent  of healthcare providers reported that they are innovating with a sense of urgency, this year.

What is the implication of such widespread technology adoption? It will impact the way hospitals deliver in-patient, out-patient, telemedicine, ambulance, and other core services. But it will also escalate costs-per-patient, requiring the management to develop new business models aimed at optimising care delivery and resources. Any new model must factor in new regulations, like the UAE’s healthcare data protection law that restricts how patients’ data is shared. Under this scenario, digital transformation will necessitate meticulous planning, expert advice, and methodical implementation. So, what do these entail?

Horizontal approach: Enhancing core competencies

As customer experience came to the forefront, in services across business and industry, it made a delayed-yet-determined entry into the healthcare sector. The corporatisation of healthcare also played into this development. Today, patient experience is the cornerstone of the sector, as it gears up for increased digitalisation across its value chain. In terms of the horizontal approach, the sector is witnessing large investments in remote clinical capabilities - including telemedicine and virtual consultations.

Patients can now access app-based on their smartphones; and the rise of immersive technologies is adding value to virtual consultations. Some of the more accessible scenarios enabled by digitalisation include:

• App based updates and communications that allow in-patients and their families to stay abreast of updates, and communicate with doctors, nursing staff, and hospital administration seamlessly.
• Patients can keep detailed and automatically updated medical records for themselves, making their medical history easily accessible.
• Patients and their caregivers can set reminders and automate notifications; including for surgery dates, recommended routines, managing pregnancies and child birth; and vaccination schedules.
• Patients can use a centralised data depository to register emergency contacts and potential donors for themselves, in case of emergencies.

From the medical staff perspective, digitised detection is helping radiologists pick up early signs of underlying diseases – especially in conjunction with Big Data analytics. Data from heart rate sensors, sweat meters, and exercise trackers in wearables, is being analysed to alert users in the event of anomalies, so that timely care can be taken. Healthcare providers are increasingly leveraging analytics for preventive care, and to give timely alerts for checkups, etc. This is translating to long-term patient engagement and good word-of-mouth marketing, which is of great consequence in healthcare.

Kumar Subramania, Senior VP at MAST Consulting

Vertical approach: Optimising management functions

In a survey, 63 per cent of respondents reported facing severe disruptions; due to internal organisational changes, cost pressures, regulation and compliance, funding, and changing patient expectations. Currently, in light of the pandemic, the emphasis is on contactless/low-contact experiences, and effective management of visitations and workflows - particularly in hospitals with a high volume of patients. Additionally, due to the risk of hospital-acquired infections (HAI), healthcare providers have scaled their sanitisation routines - adding to increased labour and associated costs.

IoT and AI-based solutions are enabling better integration and centralising of healthcare data, to increase efficiency and savings – particularly in managing supply chains and inventories; reducing errors; and facilitating collaboration. Enhancements that already being implemented include:

• Reducing patient waiting times using QR code and pre-approvals; and pre-validation of insurance, speeding up access to consultations and procedures.
• Doctor, operating from physically distant locations, can now collaborate on complex treatments - including surgeries and other critical procedures – due to real time remote access, and enhanced transparency.
• Sharing health data with government and other regulatory bodies has become easy for hospitals, with automation of such exchanges possible, with personalised and specific setting of permissions.
• Patients can set automated predictions, based on previous diagnosis and current health metrics, including the capability to alert medical responders, allied with the use of wearables.

Cloud integration of healthcare data is also making it more accessible to both patient, using mobile devices; access on-demand services; and let them decide how and with whom they choose to share their medical records, history, and test reports - which can contain sensitive information.

Value at the intersection of vertical and horisontal approaches

Digitalisation efforts not only unlock standalone value, but also bring greater value when both horizontal and vertical functions in healthcare intersect. For example, AI-powered automation and robotics process automation can replace laborious manual processes to add further efficiency. This is significant; taking into account that non-patient-care activities account for 51 per cent of a nurse’s workload and 16 per cent of a physician's activities. So, by automating and optimising their workload, the management can free up their time for more patient-centric services, and better treatment; while Big Data and analytics provision for future eventualities - like estimating future admission rates, and allocating staff accordingly.

A reliable study indicates that analytics can reduce the number of duplicated diagnostic tests, leading to 7-11 per cent savings. Such quantifiable outcomes make a non-negotiable case for accelerated digital transformation in healthcare. But it is advisable to partner with future-ready service providers and consultants; who not only explore disruptive technologies and strive for early-mover advantage, but also bear in mind emerging priorities - like patient experiences, data security, and ethical caregiving.