At Arab Health 2020 three successful businesses shared their stories under the theme of innovation and science in Dubai, at an event hosted by Marwan Abdulaziz Janahi, Managing Director of Dubai Science Park. Intrigued, we caught up recently with Marwan to hear his perspective on innovation, Dubai Science Park, and the future of healthcare.

Dubai Science Park, as its name suggests, is a project that looks to the future. A modern business park in the desert, its sleek and striking buildings evoke a science-fiction landscape. Yet its story goes back to a much earlier time, to the pre-iPhone era when biotechnology was “booming” and Dubai was firmly on the ascendancy, famous landmarks still under construction.

DuBiotech (Dubai Biotechnology and Research Park) was launched in 2005 by the Prime Minister of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum as part of the vision to establish a knowledge-based economy.

Marwan explained that DuBiotech originally responded to the needs of the biotech industry – hence the name – across the entire value chain. Initially no more than infrastructure, DuBiotech soon provided a “stepping stone” to other requirements that included talent, finance and regulations.

DuBiotech continued to answer the evolving needs of the industry, and over time the team looked at the broader healthcare picture, from medical technology to health informatics. Accordingly, it began welcoming companies from other sectors - such as medical device businesses Getinge and Medtronic.

In October 2015, acknowledging its new identity, DuBiotech underwent a rebrand, becoming the more holistic-sounding Dubai Science Park.

More than a business park

Today in 2020, Dubai Science Park’s members have grown organically to a vibrant mix of more than 350 companies who employ over 3,700 professionals. This has been achieved with its ample office and laboratory space, robust infrastructure and services to improve the ease of doing business to foster growth and research across life sciences, plant sciences, energy and the environment.

Not all are global medical device and pharmaceutical corporations: a little more than half (55 percent) is made up by SMEs who are able to use world-class facilities that include a coworking space.

They come from all over the world - the US, UK, Japan, Korea and India especially. Dubai’s diverse and ageing population makes it an ideal test bed for international companies looking to access bigger markets such as Saudi Arabia, Marwan explained, and Dubai Science Park is an ideal “stepping stone” or platform for establishing a regional presence.

Support is provided to international startups upon successful review of their business plan, team and resumes. This includes facilitating relationships. With finding the right partner a challenge in the local market, owing to a fragmented healthcare system, Dubai Science Park can help connect the dots.

A community of engaged healthcare stakeholders

Dubai Science Park sees itself as an “ecosystem enabler” working in partnership with different organisations.

Organisations such as universities, for example. Marwan explained that it was important to partner with higher education – such as Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU) - as having access to local talent was vital for sustaining innovation.

Dubai Science Park also works with providers such as King’s College Hospital, Dubai Health Authority and other hospitals; insurers; payers; and local and international investment companies.

These entities are given the opportunity to interact with each other every two months through a community engagement and networking platform provided by Dubai Science Park: Advance Health.

Each Advance Health session focuses on a different topic, with four to five expert speakers invited to present a different perspective. They include a government perspective – mostly – and points of view from providers, payers and technology industries. The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) was invited to present its mental health strategy for one session, for example, while providers shared their own initiatives, and technology participants offered a point of view around disruption

To date, 10 topics have been covered, including diabetes at Arab Health, next-generation sequencing (NGS) or genetics, mental health, 3D printing, rare diseases, public private partnerships (PPP) and the COVID-19 global pandemic. 

Marwan described Advance Health as not only a vibrant event, in which people exchange information and ideas, but as a “test bed” that results in innovation across the science and healthcare-focused business community.

Data, data, data

In a rapidly changing world, Marwan is excited about what the future of healthcare holds. In a word, data.

In his mind, tech-enabled data has the most transformative potential. While previously power was with the doctor, today it’s the reverse and it's the patients who are seeking validation. As an example of this rapidly shifting scene, he pointed to remote patient monitoring and telemedicine which has come to the fore because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Data has been described as the world’s most valuable resource – the new oil, even - and Marwan believes it will impact all sectors, including medical devices and pharmaceuticals. He highlighted the example of a Dubai Science Park company setting up a laboratory for Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) to better treat chronic patients.

He cautioned that, amidst this rapid progress, questions remain. With health records as important as bank accounts, data privacy for instance to prevent misuse is a key issue - namely who should access or use data? It’s a regulatory challenge, in part because some bodies are more agile and proactive than others.

Marwan nonetheless remains optimistic, suggesting that in healthcare there is greater transparency these days, again enabled by technology, allowing patients better control and scrutiny.

Data aside, other promising innovations are unfolding in healthcare such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).

Marwan shared the example of local talent Dr Sana Farid, a young qualified surgeon and AR/VR strategist, who readers might remember from Arab Health.

Dr Sana is using the latest immersive technologies for pain management and training. She’s the Co-Founder and CEO of Munfarid – an immersive healthcare startup supported by TECOM Group’s innovation and enabling platform in5 (Dubai Science Park is one of 10 business-focused communities under TECOM Group’s purview).

Disruptive Dubai

In many respects, the story of Dubai Science Park mirrors the story of Dubai itself – a hub of multiple parts primed for the future, ready to lead into new territory.

With oil giving way to data in today’s global economy, expect to see Dubai Science Park – always with an eye on emerging trends – evolving with it. It pivoted before, to use today’s terminology, and it can do so again.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) had to cancel its annual health IT conference due to growing concern over the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which was quickly becoming a pandemic. This marked the first time in nearly 60 years that the conference has been cancelled and as we have seen since, not only has every other conference been cancelled or postponed, but entire cities are now under quarantine. To salvage as much of the conference as possible, many of the scheduled on-site meetings carried on remotely. During the meetings, vendors highlighted technology that could potentially ease the strain for which many healthcare systems are now experiencing, including the following examples.

AI for the clinician

Omdia spoke with Tim Butler, Sr. Director of Acute Care Strategy and Marketing at GE Healthcare about a new collaboration with Roche called Graffiti.

Graffiti™ is a clinical virtual assistant with artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled skills designed to help simplify access to patient data and inform critical thinking from a mobile device. It enables clinicians to conversationally query the medical record while better coordinating patient care through real-time collaboration. While the tool was developed completely in-house, as a platform it utilises Amazon Web Services (AWS) and was trained on ‘tens of thousands of utterances.

Building on GE’s in vitro and Roche’s in vivo capabilities, Graffiti is designed to help heighten the situational awareness of clinical teams especially as they care for patients susceptible to deterioration, including sepsis. Graffiti may also prove valuable in situations where triage is needed. When asked about the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval, Butler noted that notifying based on changes in a patient’s condition will require FDA approval, but it is not required for the current version. Graffiti is being tested in one healthcare system with two more pending.

The radiology command centre

Omdia spoke with Dale Wiggins, General Manager of Philips HealthSuite Digital Platform, and Sham Sokka, Global Marketing and Ventures Leader in Precision Diagnosis at Philips Healthcare, about new ventures that the company has been investing. Among these are teleradiology, telepathology, and command centre capabilities for remote image acquisition. Within an integrated delivery network, this command centre can manage acquisition across the entire system, even remote locations. AI aids in the acquisition process, including patient positioning, patient throughput, and workforce management—cameras are also incorporated.

Philips Healthcare can have a remote imaging location set up and running within one week, and the company uses a multi-vendor approach concerning scanner hardware. This combination of AI and imaging centres closer to patients can prove useful in deploying triage in rapidly developing situations. Philips Healthcare is currently testing the command centre with two large radiology chains in the U.S., the teleradiology platform is now used by 400 hospitals, with 120 radiologists, doing 1.2 million exams per year.

AI-powered ambient clinical intelligence and the smart exam room

Peter Durlach, Senior Vice President, Healthcare Strategy and New Business Development at Nuance Communications, noted that the company has been fighting physician burnout with its conversational AI in products such as Dragon Medical and PowerScribe (speech recognition for clinical documentation). Now Nuance is taking the technology a step further with the Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX)—exam rooms that are equipped with 14 microphones connected to software in Microsoft Azure cloud.

The DAX system can interpret and document up to six people speaking conversationally. The system can pull information from any health record and all documentation happens without further input from the clinician, this benefits revenue cycle management, as well as clinical decision support as more accurate and complete documentation of patient information, leads to better management of the care pathway. Microsoft had previously been working on PowerMD for this purpose but found it beneficial to partner with Nuance for the new service, which launched two weeks ago. It is in use with a few early adopters (including Novant Health, Rush University Medical Center, and SSM Health).

Preliminary findings show an 88 per cent improvement in physician satisfaction. The ability to capture examination details from an entire care team and patient simultaneously, while reducing physician burnout, may prove to be an enabler of high case throughput in times of crisis. Further to crisis management, Nuance is assisting its clients to quickly enable clinicians to work remotely. They are also helping to facilitate quick moves toward scaling telehealth services with their patient and clinician portal products. An example of this occurred last week as a healthcare system needed to scale from a few hundred connected physicians to several thousand within less than three days due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak.

Also concerning telehealth, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has broadened access to Medicare telehealth services so that beneficiaries can receive a wider range of services from their doctors, without having to travel to a healthcare facility. These policy changes build on regulatory flexibility provided under President Trump’s emergency declaration. The CMS is expanding this benefit on a temporary and emergency basis under the 1135 waiver authority and Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act.

Under this new waiver, Medicare can pay for office, hospital, and other visits furnished through telehealth services across the country and including in patient’s places of residence. A range of providers, such as doctors, nurse practitioners, clinical psychologists, and licensed clinical social workers, will be able to offer telehealth to their patients. Additionally, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General is providing flexibility for healthcare providers to reduce or waive cost-sharing for telehealth visits paid by federal healthcare programmes. Prior to this waiver, Medicare could only pay for telehealth on a limited basis such as when the patient is in a designated rural area and when they leave their home and go to a medical facility.

Incentivising better patient behaviour

‘Patientology CRM’ is one of the patient management tools from Welltok, designed to help providers improve margins through better patient management and facilitates one-on-one connections with patients. Chris Cosgrove, Market President at Welltok, noted that the platform can reinforce provider relationships to increase referrals and activate certain patient behaviours that support health. While the goal is to aid healthcare system clients realise the long-term value of each patient, it may also enable the rapid dissemination of critical and timely information at times of crisis. Welltok uses a proprietary consumer database of 275 million people and 800 variables, applying predictive analytics and AI to identify individual needs. Welltok integrates with the electronic medical record (EMR) and cost accounting systems and is in 50 healthcare systems in the U.S.

As of today, healthcare systems in much of the world continue to brace for rising incidences of the COVID-19 virus. There are widespread concerns over staff, bed, and device shortages, which have already become problematic in some of the hardest-hit cities. While public cooperation is essential to curbing the pandemic through sanitation and social distancing, there is a significant role that technology can play now and in future crisis. This includes applying cloud computing and AI to pharma development.

For instance, IBM has just announced that it will help coordinate an effort to provide massive computing power to scientists researching COVID-19. As part of a newly launched consortium known as the COVID-19 High Performance Computing (HPC) Consortium (which includes the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the U.S. Department of Energy, MIT, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Argonne National Lab, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NASA, the National Science Foundation, Microsoft, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Amazon), research teams will have access to 16 systems with a combined 775,000 processor cores and 34,000 GPUs.

IBM anticipates that this massive capacity will be used to develop algorithms that assess how COVID-19 is progressing and to model potential therapies in pursuit of a vaccine. Further, in another effort to speed vaccine development, Lenovo and Intel have provided a large high-performance computing cluster that can be used to process high-throughput data from a genome sequencing system developed by China-based life sciences company BGI.

According to new research by Omdia, the global market for radiotherapy and proton therapy equipment will continue to grow given the need to deploy more cancer equipment to battle the disease in the years to come.

Worldwide revenue this year for radiotherapy and proton therapy equipment is forecast to grow 6 per cent and reach US$6.6bn, replicating the pace of expansion set in 2019 when the market rose to US$6.3bn.

Last year, radiotherapy accounted for approximately 85 per cent share of market revenue, with proton therapy taking up the remaining 15 per cent. From a products-versus-services split, hardware and software products combined represented an estimated 57 per cent share of revenue, with services accounting for the balance of 43 per cent share.

More than 18 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2018 alone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with the figure anticipated to rise by 63 per cent by 2040. But while an estimated 60 per cent of new cancer patients will need as part of their treatment plan some form of radiation therapy or radiotherapy, only 25 per cent will receive treatment because the equipment is not available or because treatment is too costly.

Therapies defined

Most types of cancer radiotherapy use ionizing photon (X-ray or gamma-ray) beams for the local or regional treatment of disease. However, ionizing radiation damages the DNA of both tumour and healthy cells, causing biochemical reactions that eventually result in prolonged abnormal cell function and cellular death. For this regimen, the capability to focus treatment on only the malignancy would be optimal.

An alternative treatment modality to radiotherapy is proton therapy, also known as charged particle radiotherapy. Instead of photons, proton therapy uses beams of protons or other charged particles, such as helium, carbon, or other ions. Charged particles possess different depth-dose distributions compared to photons, depositing most of their energy in the last final millimetres of their trajectory when their speed slows. This results in a sharp and localised peak of dose, known as the Bragg peak. Proton therapy is still an emerging type of external radiation therapy in part due to its high cost, which involves the use of a particle accelerator, which directs proton particles in the form of a beam at the tumour. The beam is generated by using a cyclotron or synchrotron, instead of a linear accelerator.

The third type of treatment is brachytherapy, or the treatment of cancer, especially of the prostate, liver, and breast. The procedure involves the insertion of radioactive implants directly into the tissue. (Note: revenue from brachytherapy is not included in this insight.)

With proton therapy, long a limiting factor in making the therapy more commonly available was the capital cost entailed in developing a proton centre. However, options are now available to reduce start-up costs and help build more proton therapy centres, including one-room centres.

Overall, the upgrading of equipment is becoming increasingly important, especially as current radiotherapy or proton therapy gear continue to age out. Systems featuring a modular design also are candidates for upgrading because they do not require full system replacement.

Breakdown of equipment types

A variety of equipment is used in both radiotherapy and proton therapy. The device most often used in the external radiation treatment of cancer is the medical linear accelerator, or LINAC, which customises high-energy X-rays or electrons to conform to a tumour’s shape and destroys cancer cells while avoiding the surrounding healthy tissue. Featuring several built-in safety measures to ensure delivery of a dose as prescribed, the equipment is routinely checked by a medical physicist to ensure it is operating properly.

While LINACs are widely available in the U.S. and Western Europe, significant demand exists in the rest of the world, deposit cost constraints create a shortfall in availability. Based on demand from patients that could benefit from this therapy, the shortage of LINACs is expected to increase through the next decade. Approximately 14,400 LINACs and proton systems worldwide are installed at present, with the number forecast to reach 18,950 units in 2023, Omdia estimates.

LINAC machines deliver several types of radiation therapy, including the following:

• Intensity-modulated radiation therapy, or LINAC IMRT, can be controlled to target more precisely the size and shape of the tumour, allowing a higher radiation dose while minimising radiation to surrounding healthy tissue. A variation or advancement of IMRT is volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), which allows the clinician to control three parameters: the radiation beam, or beam-shaping aperture; dose rate; and speed of rotation around the patient. Tomotherapy is a radiation therapy modality in which the patient is scanned across a modulated strip-beam so that only one “slice” of the target is exposed at any one time by the LINAC beam.
• Image-guided radiation therapy, or LINAC IGRT, complements LINAC-IMRT in allowing clinicians to improve treatment accuracy by accounting for small tumour movements, changes in tumour size or tumour shrinking.
• Stereotactic radiosurgery, or LINAC SRS, is an advanced ablative radiation treatment used to treat tumours and other disorders in the brain. It involves the delivery of a single, highly precise, high dose of ionizing radiation to small and critically located targets in the brain with minimal damage to surrounding tissue in a small number of treatment sessions.
• Stereotactic body radiation therapy, or LINAC SBRT, resembles LINAC SRS in being an advanced ablative radiation treatment as well as a hypofractionation regimen—or radiotherapy that allows higher doses of radiation and fewer treatment sessions. With SBRT, small- and medium-sized tumours can be removed with minimal damage to surrounding tissue. But while SRS targets brain lesions, SBRT is used to treat body tumours and tumours outside the brain.
• Three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy, or 3D CRT, delivers a conformal dose distribution to tumours while sparing surrounding normal structures. The use of patient-specific 3D images in the treatment-planning process distinguishes 3D CRT from conventional treatment techniques.

Market winners

Among regions, the Americas—primarily the U.S.—held the largest share of revenue in 2019, with 42 per cent of the total market. In second place was EMEA, with 35 per cent; followed by Asia Pacific, with 23 per cent.

The world’s top three suppliers of radiotherapy and proton therapy equipment include two based in California’s Silicon Valley—Varian Medical Systems in Palo Alto, the market leader; and Accuray Inc., headquartered in Sunnyvale, in third place. Occupying the No. 2 slot is Elekta AB from Stockholm, Sweden.

Countries, where people do not have a habit of washing their hands automatically, tend to have a much higher exposure to coronavirus, a new study reveals.

Key findings

University of Birmingham researchers have discovered that at least 50 per cent of people do not have a habit of automatic handwashing after using the toilet in China (77 per cent), Japan (70 per cent), South Korea (61 per cent) and the Netherlands (50 per cent). These countries are followed by Thailand and Kenya, where 48 per cent do not have this habit, and Italy with 43 per cent.

In contrast, UK and U.S. frequencies are 25 per cent and 23 per cent, correspondingly. The best handwashing culture is observed in Saudi Arabia, where only 3 per cent of people do not wash their hands habitually.

Professor Ganna Pogrebna, from Birmingham Business School and Dr. Alex Kharlamov, from Birmingham Law School, published their findings in Regulation & Governance.

Professor Pogrebna commented: “Countries where people do not have a habit of washing their hands automatically tend to have a much higher exposure to COVID-19. In the absence of a cure or vaccine, the current outbreak obliges humanity to find ways of reducing the potential risk of infection.

“Frequent handwashing with soap for at least 20 seconds is widely advised as a preventive measure against COVID-19. It is possible to quickly influence individual hygiene behaviour in the short term but changing handwashing culture in a particular country – or globally - is a much more difficult task.”

Culture of handwashing

Professor Pogrebna and Dr. Kharlamov used the dataset of 64,002 respondents as a proxy of handwashing culture to explore the impact of this culture on the COVID-19 outbreak magnitude.

Dr. Alex Kharlamov commented: “Many factors may have contributed to the spread of COVID-19 around the globe, but handwashing culture alone appears to be an important factor in explaining why some counties have been hit harder by the outbreak.

“Time will tell whether the challenges posed by COVID-19 will help to make handwashing culture around the globe more unified. However, the data – adjusted for cultural differences and differences in economic development between countries – demonstrated a very strong correlation between a lack of handwashing culture and exposure to the virus.”

With the COVID-19 epidemic upon us, healthcare providers and governments around the world have been scrambling to redirect patients from hospitals to their telephones in a bid to control the virus.

But telemedicine (accessing a doctor by video call or by phone) is not a new initiative and has been steadily gaining recognition as a convenient and cost-effective way for patients to access a doctor. Available in different forms, telemedicine may be as simple as a phone call from a doctor or it can be more developed, for instance, delivered through a dedicated platform which enables the use of video calling and patient triaging.

In the UAE, Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) both made announcements in 2019 that they would be developing telemedicine platforms of their own. In December 2019, the DHA rolled out its ‘Doctor For Every Citizen’ service to Emiratis, but recently extended it to all Dubai residents who may now use it if they have concerns about COVID-19. There are also a number of independent telemedicine providers operating in the UAE, available for anyone to use at a cost. But are people really likely to use telemedicine instead of visiting their doctor in person?

How likely are people to use telemedicine?

MyPulse is a digital health app launching in the UAE later this year, with a robust telemedicine service at its core, along with a suite of wider health-related offerings. The company recently conducted a survey in order to understand general perceptions towards the use of telemedicine and how it should be provided.

The majority of survey respondents (89 per cent) said they would consider using telemedicine but only 22 per cent had. This is suggestive of a lack of awareness of the telemedicine offerings that are currently in the UAE market. Due to the mandatory insurance regulations in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, insurers have a responsibility to communicate telemedicine to customers, especially those insurers who have a telemedicine service embedded into their health insurance plans. Despite this, 55 per cent of people responding to the survey said they didn’t know if their health insurance provider offered access to telemedicine.

The many advantages of telemedicine

Telemedicine (when delivered well) has a multitude of advantages. Its ability to reduce exposure amongst patients and doctors in the event of contagious illnesses is the reason for its sudden drive by governments around the world. With COVID-19 symptoms ranging from relatively mild to life-threatening, telemedicine has become an important tool in keeping low-risk victims away from hospitals whilst still delivering advice and guidance to worried patients.

Even when the world is not dealing with an epidemic, telemedicine has its benefits, not only for users but also for healthcare providers, insurers and even employers. MyPulse asked individuals what they considered to be the main advantages of telemedicine and convenience was mentioned by 90 per cent. Speed of appointments, reduced cost of appointments, less time off work and even the reduced likelihood of being referred for unnecessary tests were also highlighted as benefits.

Interestingly, some survey respondents also thought about how the cost savings associated with telemedicine might positively impact their future health insurance premiums. It is certainly possible that if overall claims costs are reduced, future health insurance increases may be reduced. In a setting where health insurance is employer-funded, this could translate into a huge benefit for businesses.

Who should be footing the bill for telemedicine?

In Dubai and Abu Dhabi where health insurance is mandatory, and employers or sponsors cover the cost of premiums, there is an expectation that telemedicine should be provided at little or no cost to the user. 95 per cent of survey participants viewed telemedicine as a service that should be covered under their health insurance policy and 82 per cent said they would expect their employer to provide access to it. With this in mind, there is an argument that telemedicine should be routinely covered by insurance in the same way a traditional doctor appointment would be covered.

From an insurer’s point of view, telemedicine can reduce the cost of claims related to minor illnesses and prevent abuse of coverage in the form of fraudulent claims and referrals for unnecessary diagnostics or treatment. It can even be positioned as a gate-keeping tool to encourage people to seek advice from a GP/family medicine doctor prior to consulting a specialist.

Many of the leading health insurers are already offering telemedicine in some form but whether it is currently being used to its full potential is questionable. One thing we can safely assume is that as technology continues to revolutionise and redefine healthcare, telemedicine will continue to evolve with it and many people will come to expect a doctor to be available at the push of a button.

To learn more about the findings of the MyPulse telemedicine survey, click here to read the full report.

Right from rapid tests to 3D printed solutions, companies across the world are coming together to find ground-breaking ways to defeat the Coronavirus pandemic. Below, we take a look at some innovations that can help find a light at the end of the tunnel.

Mayo Clinic test delivers results in 24 hours

Mayo Clinic has developed a test that can detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus in clinical samples. The test, "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS CoV-2), Molecular Detection" has reportedly been fully validated. Data from the test will be submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for review and emergency use authorisation.

"An individual can now receive his or her result for SARS-CoV-2 within 24 hours," said Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., a clinical microbiologist and director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

The real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test can identify SARS-CoV-2 from a variety of clinical samples. The PCR assay has been validated to test respiratory samples collected from suspected COVID-19 patients, including nasopharyngeal swabs, sputum, throat swabs, bronchoalveolar lavages, and bronchial washings.

GE and Ford team up

GE Healthcare and Ford Motor Company are working together to scale the production of ventilators, arming clinicians with medical equipment important in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Through this collaboration, Ford will provide its technical and production expertise with the goal of manufacturing a simplified design of GE Healthcare’s existing ventilator. This new system is being built to address urgent needs during the pandemic and will be equipped with the essential functions required to safely treat COVID-19 patients.

GE Healthcare President & CEO Kieran Murphy was quoted saying: “Our dedicated teams are working around the clock to ensure that our customers and partners on the front lines have the equipment and servicing needed to diagnose and treat patients with COVID-19.

“To help address this global challenge, we have increased our manufacturing capacity and output of equipment – including CTs, ultrasound devices, mobile X-ray systems, patient monitors and ventilators – important in the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 patients.”

BeeRole’s test offers results in 15 minutes

BeeRole is offering rapid test kits that are used for the qualitative determination of COVID-19 IgM/IgG antibodies in human serum, plasma and venous whole blood samples in vitro.

The COVID-19 test kit works in four steps: Collect blood/serum/plasma sample, add blood/serum/plasma sample to sample well, place 2-3 drops of buffer in a sample well, and read results after 15 minutes. This kit uses colloidal gold immunochromatography.

The trial product was first tested and used in Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China. It was then quickly approved for manufacturing. The product is based on the up-to-the-minute nanotechnologies and rare-earth metals, thus allowing for quick results. See how it works below.

 

The Corona Copter

Iqarus, an International SOS company, has developed and launched a new service to safely manage suspected cases of coronavirus following their disembarkation from an offshore location.

The new service, CMED, supports clients with the receipt, transfer and assessment of suspected cases of COVID-19 from Aberdeen, UK, heliports, which allows duty holders to meet their obligation to assess patients and determine if they are fit for onward travel.

Following initial offshore assessment from the asset medic, the patient will then be transported via bespoke helicopters – called ‘the corona copter’ – that meet hygiene standards for each trip.

Oxford and King’s develop prototype ventilator

Engineers, anaesthetists and surgeons from the University of Oxford and King’s College London are building and testing ventilator prototypes that can be manufactured using techniques and tools available in university and small and medium enterprise (SME) workshops.

The team, led by Oxford Professors Andrew Farmery, Mark Thompson and Alfonso Castrejon-Pita and King's College London’s Dr. Federico Formenti, have been working to define novel mechanisms of operation that will meet the required specifications for safe and reliable function.

Professor Farmery, Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, said: ‘Ordinarily, to develop a medical device such as this would be a huge task, and would take years. We have designed a simple and robust ventilator, which will serve the specific task of managing the very sickest patients during this crisis. By pooling available expertise from inside and outside the University, and making the design freely available to local manufacturers, we are pleased to be able to respond to this challenge so quickly.”

Within a matter of weeks, it is hoped a prototype could be developed which would satisfy UK’s MHRA (the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) requirements, and the scientists believe a mature manufacturing network at scale could be achievable within 2-3 months.

Bactiguard launches HYDROCYN aqua

Bactiguard launched HYDROCYN aqua in Sweden on March 12. The effect of HYDROCYN aqua on coronaviruses has been tested and it is documented that it kills 99.9 per cent of previous variants within 15–30 seconds. Previous experience also shows that the proven effect can be transferred to new variants of coronavirus. Tests on COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) are now underway to verify this.

HYDROCYN aqua is a pH-neutral and water-based product used for wound care and, unlike alcohol and chlorhexidine, is not irritating, toxic or harmful to the body. The active substance is hypochlorous acid (HOCl). The product is CE marked (EU approved) and registered by the US FDA.

Hands-free 3D-printed door openers to help curb Coronavirus

Door handles are among the most germ-infested objects in houses, hospitals, factories, and elderly homes. In order to combat the spread of Coronavirus, Belgium-based company Materialise is manufacturing 3D print hands-free door openers. The company’s easy-to-use openers don’t require drilling holes or replacing door’s handle. All you have to do is fasten two 3D-printed pieces together with screws over the existing handle. Check out how it works.

 

Takeda develops plasma-derived therapy for COVID-19

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited recently shared that it is initiating the development of an anti-SARS-CoV-2 polyclonal hyperimmune globulin (H-IG) to treat high-risk individuals with COVID-19, while also studying whether its currently marketed and pipeline products may be effective treatments for infected patients.

Hyperimmune globulins are plasma derived-therapies that have previously been shown to be effective in the treatment of severe acute viral respiratory infections and may be a treatment option for COVID-19. Takeda has the expertise to research, develop, and manufacture a potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 polyclonal H-IG, which it is referring to as TAK-888.

The company is also exploring whether select marketed therapies and molecules in its drug library could be viable candidates for the effective treatment of COVID-19.

Pfizer and BioNTech collaborate

Biopharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech have agreed to co-develop and distribute (with the exception of China) a potential mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine aimed at preventing COVID-19 infection.

Test kits from Primerdesign and Randox

A detection kit launched at the end of January by Primerdesign, a business unit of diagnostics group Novacyt, allows for samples to be screened quickly. Also, At Medlab Middle East 2020, Randox Laboratories announced that the company is in the final stages of developing a test developed on its patented Biochip Technology.

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to spread, doctors and patients are shifting to virtual tools in greater numbers.

Change is coming right from the top.

In the US, federal rules have been relaxed to allow physicians to provide remote care more easily, while in Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a telehealth service enabling people to seek medical assistance via phone or video technology. The telehealth sessions in Australia will be conducted by doctors, nurses, mental health workers and other specialists.

In the UAE, a virtual doctor chatbot was recently launched by the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) to assess potential coronavirus cases in the country.

The moves come as healthcare services worldwide are increasingly strained by the burden of the outbreak.

Brian de Francesca, chief executive of Dubai-based Ver2 Digital Medicine, explained that telemedicine (or in his words “digitalisation and connectivity”) ensures that clinics and hospitals are not overloaded with people “who have a runny nose”, allowing room for patients who are seriously ill with the coronavirus.

With more of us social distancing or even self-isolating, the use of telecommunications and virtual technology is proving vital in delivering healthcare outside of traditional facilities.

Microsoft Teams, a workplace collaboration platform with chat, video, voice and healthcare tools will for example allow providers to schedule, manage and conduct virtual visits with patients, such as a surgery follow-up.

Teams’ video conferencing is also ideal for patients with a compromised immune system - as is remote monitoring technology.

De Francesca, stressing that immunosuppressed patients should be “kept off the streets” during the coronavirus outbreak, pointed to new technology that allows an oncologist to not only “teleconsult” but also remotely monitor the white blood cell count of an oncology patient – helping the patient to keep away from the hospital for routine blood tests.

Virtual collaboration

Today's technologies go beyond simple 1:1 communication, enabling real-time collaboration for cross-functional teams irrespective of their location.

Microsoft’s popular Teams platform for example now offers features suitable for healthcare organisations, streamlining collaboration between mobile hospital clinicians so that high quality patient care is delivered.

Teams was rolled out to all NHS staff in England and Wales, including those in self-isolation, to enable greater communication and collaboration during the coronavirus outbreak. Through Teams it will soon be possible to target role recipients based on shifts they’re working.

In a similar vein, the Institute of Environmental Management and Sustainability and Dubai-based innovation company Munfarid are implementing an immersive remote work platform tailored for emergency situations like the coronavirus pandemic that includes collaboration and group task features. Dr Sana Farid, co-founder and CEO of Munfarid explained that government departments are seeking remote working options, and immersive work platforms are the go-to technology.

There is another powerful opportunity.

De Francesca believes that telemedicine has the potential to allow physicians, researchers and patients to collaborate virtually to best understand the coronavirus itself and perhaps even develop a cure, while however cautioning that there is a need for coordination and governance.

Earlier in the outbreak, for example, US scientists set up a workspace on the instant messaging platform Slack to coordinate and accelerate research, facilitating the rapid sharing and exchange of information.

Whether or not a critical breakthrough is achieved through collaboration tools remains to be seen, but it's clear that there is no turning back: as millions more patients and professionals alike become newly accustomed to using Teams, Slack, Skype, WhatsApp and other platforms as a result of the pandemic, virtual technologies will play an increasingly important role in tomorrow's healthcare.

 

The coronavirus outbreak is having a significant toll worldwide, not only on economies and systems from education to health, but on people – including those who are directly fighting the virus to keep nations safe.

The strain is mounting.

Related: Coronavirus update: Telemedicine and virtual collaboration on the rise as pandemic spreads

In recent days the UK Prime Minister urged 65,000 former medical professionals to step out of retirement, and the Chief Nursing Officer for England called on all recent former nurses to lend their expertise and experience.

In Italy, where the healthcare system is struggling, a tipping point has been passed, with hospitals reportedly near collapse and physicians left feeling exhausted and emotionally depleted.  

Related: How to protect the wellbeing of healthcare staff in the COVID-19 crisis

The following are just some of the ways health professionals are impacted by the coronavirus:

Self-isolation

Healthcare workers are of course not immune to the coronavirus, whether they are government leaders such as the UK's Health Minister and Iran’s deputy health minister, hospital directors, or nurses.

Healthcare workers are concerned that they are bringing the coronavirus home and are undergoing self-isolation. In at least one case, a physician is self-isolating for seven to 14 days after displaying virus symptoms. Some health workers are being asked to self-isolate after travel, for example those in Ontario, Canada.

Mental health

Isolation and quarantine can have a major psychological impact.

The American Psychological Institute stated in 2019 that loneliness and social isolation significantly increased risk for premature mortality, and a UK expert with the Economic and Social Research Institute warned that healthcare workers are more likely to experience mental health issues as a result of self-isolation.

Mental health problems and emotional imbalances may present under different forms with a combination of different symptoms. Stretched by coronavirus-related demand and feeling helpless, for example, healthcare workers are reporting headaches and nausea when faced with stress.

Sleep is also being impacted: people living under lockdown are getting up later and many people are struggling to sleep altogether. To support mental health and sleep, Slumber Yard has created a guide Sleep During a Crisis, which includes sleep tips and how the human body is affected under crisis.

Recognising that feeling stressed is an experience that many health workers are likely going through, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed a series of mental health considerations as support for everyone’s mental and psychological wellbeing during the crisis.

WHO considerations for health workers include taking care of basic needs (and avoiding unhelpful coping strategies like cigarettes and alcohol), encouraging good quality communication, rotating staff from high stress functions to lower stress functions, ensuring that staff have access to mental health services, and other measures.

People in isolation – including health staff – are encouraged to stay connected and maintain social networks, pay attention to their own needs and feelings, and avoid listening to rumours that may make them feel uncomfortable.

The efforts of healthcare workers are not going unnoticed. Across the world, grateful citizens are showing their appreciation. In France, Italy, Israel and Spain frontline workers were applauded from windows on locked down streets. A new hashtag, #WeApplaud, is resounding loud and clear across social networks globally. 

As life momentarily pauses, let’s take a minute to appreciate the sacrifice and bravery of our modern-day heroes. To our healthcare colleagues worldwide, we may not know them all, but we owe them all. #Covid19 #SocialDistancing #StayHomeStaySafe #FlattenTheCurve #HealthForAll pic.twitter.com/rn1Tloby5B

— Omnia Health (@omnia_health) April 6, 2020

Medical supply shortages

Healthcare workers are speaking out about medical supply shortages, from masks to ventilators, especially in the United States where imports dramatically fell in February, mostly from China.

Medical professionals are saying that these shortages are putting themselves at risk, and are reportedly "terrified" for themselves and their patients.

To address the shortage, urgent calls are growing on social media for medical supplies, N95 masks especially.

In Italy, medications, mechanical ventilators, oxygen and personal protective equipment are not available, physicians claim.

Telemedicine

The coronavirus outbreak is forcing hospitals to reduce the number of people visiting so that they can manage the COVID-19 outbreak better.

Telemedicine, at its most basic level someone picking up a phone to the doctor, is on the rise. Virtual telephone clinics in the UK are replacing face to face appointments amidst the crisis.

In the US, the Trump administration and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced steps to expand access to telehealth services during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Apps and websites are also having a critical new role in the coronavirus outbreak.

For example, Cleveland Clinic is asking patients to use their Express Care Online or call their primary care physician. Cleveland Clinic saw a fifteenfold increase in telehealth visits.

 

In the GCC, the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) is offering 24/7 consultations with doctors regarding COVID-19 concerns via video and voice calls under the Doctor for Every Citizen initiative.

A Virtual Doctor chatbot was furthermore launched by the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention to ease the coronavirus burden on the health services. It asks users five multiple-choice questions, including a person’s travel history, symptoms and if they’ve been in contact with someone who has been infected with the coronavirus.

Biopharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech have agreed to immediately co-develop and distribute (with the exception of China) a potential mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine aimed at preventing COVID-19 infection.

The commitment builds on the R&D collaboration into which the companies entered in 2018 to develop mRNA-based vaccines for the prevention of influenza. 

Related: Coronavirus update: UAE launches Virtual Doctor to combat COVID-19

BNT162 is expected to enter clinical testing by the end of April 2020, subject to regulatory approval as part of a global clinical development program. The vaccine candidate is the first from 'Project Lightspeed', BioNTech's accelerated development program encompassing the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 infection.

The program leverages BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA platforms for infectious diseases, its fully-owned GMP manufacturing infrastructure for mRNA vaccine production and its global clinical development capabilities, drawing on the company's broad network of global collaborators.

Pfizer and BioNTech expect to use multiple R&D sites from both companies, including in the United States and Germany, to house the activities identified by the collaboration agreement.

BioNTech additionally entered into a strategic alliance with China-based Fosun Pharma to jointly develop its COVID-19 vaccine in China. Clinical trials will be conducted in China leveraging Fosun Pharma's clinical development, regulatory and commercial capabilities, whlie BioNTech will supply the mRNA vaccine for clinical trials from GMP manufacturing facilties in Europe.

Five-point plan to combat COVID-19

Pfizer had earlier issued a five-point plan calling on the biopharmaceutical industry to join the company in committing to unprecedented collaboration to fight COVID-19. They pledged to:

1. Share tools and insights. The company is committed to making vital tools available on an open source platform to the scientific community, and to sharing data and learnings with other companies to advance therapies and vaccines to patients
2. Marshall people. Pfizer has created a "SWAT team" to fight the pandemic, that includes leading virologists, biologists, chemists, epidemiologists, vaccine experts and other specialists
3. Apply drug development expertise. The company will share clinical development and regulatory expertise with smaller biotech companies
4. Offer manufacturing capabilities. Pfizer is committed to using excess manufacturing capacity to ensure that a therapy or vaccine reaches patients' hands as quickly as possible
5. Improve future rapid response. Pfizer is reaching out to federal agencies in the US to build a cross-industry rapid response team of scientists, clinicians and technicians

Vaccine development efforts are supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO), whose director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned in February at a global research and innovation forum that the availability of a vaccine could be 18 months away.

An estimated 466 million globally could unwittingly be living with hearing loss, according to new research commissioned by MED-EL Medical Electronics to mark World Hearing Day on March 3.

The worldwide study of over 12,000 respondents revealed that nearly a third (31 per cent) of adults have never had a hearing test. UK adults top the list with 47 per cent admitting they’ve never been checked. This comes in stark contrast to those in China and UAE where only 15 per cent and 16 per cent respectively have never had their hearing tested. Across the board, compared to 2019, the number of people getting their hearing tested has declined.

Social stigma

An online survey among 502 respondents from the UAE revealed that the biggest concern amongst the Emirates if they were to lose their hearing, would be having communication difficulties and the frustrations that would come with it (25 per cent). Nearly 2 in 10 (17 per cent) fear it would lead to social isolation.

The highest proportion of the UAE market (36 per cent) have not had their hearing checked due to the lack of awareness on the issue. For 4 in 10 (40 per cent) of the UAE market, they would only have their hearing checked if they had to – saying they would if there was a mandatory yearly checkup, especially after a certain age. Around half (46 per cent) of the UAE market think society or the community is doing something but not enough to make people with hearing issues feel included and active in everyday life.

The UAE research found that females are more likely to have never had their hearing checked, with 21 per cent of females admitting this vs 13 per cent of males. Females will raise their voice to be heard before men, with around a third (36 per cent) mentioning they have done this to be heard by someone with hearing loss/issues vs 29 per cent of men. However, males are more likely to think they themselves could be suffering from hearing loss issues – around 13 per cent of males believe this vs around 1 in 10 (10 per cent) females.

With relation to age, 13 per cent of the under 24-year-olds in the UAE said they suspect they suffer from hearing loss. Around a quarter of younger people in the Emirates think society is doing enough to make those suffering from hearing loss issues feel included, however from 45 years upwards, around 13 per cent believe this is the case.