The global pandemic has brought to light one of the most important intersects – the one between healthcare and technology. Technological innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robots can solve many of the challenges that exist within the healthcare sector today. However, it is important for healthcare IT automation to be embraced at both a societal and governmental level while ensuring mindful implementation that safeguards human touch.

Breaking down healthcare’s five main challenges

AI and robotics automation are most impactful when optimised to solve specific problems. Here are the five main challenges facing the healthcare sector, for which automation may be a good solution:

1. Human rights/access: While many consider healthcare to be a human right, millions around the world either don’t have access to good healthcare or have compromised access (see next point).
2. Financial: Healthcare can be expensive – both at an individual and governmental level. Since healthcare expenditures rise at a faster rate than gross domestic product (GDP) growth, some national governments risk bankruptcy when trying to provide adequate healthcare to entire populations using taxpayer funds.
3. Patient safety: According to a John Hopkins Medicine research article, prior to COVID-19, the third-highest cause of death in the U.S. was due to medical errors. Most of these resulted from systemic problems, including poorly coordinated care.
4. Worker retention: Retaining healthcare professionals is increasingly challenging for hospitals and other clinical facilities. One study states 43 per cent of nurses are considering leaving their profession to work elsewhere in the healthcare sector.
5. Workflow consistency: Healthcare workers have less automated workflows when compared to front-line workers in other sectors. In fact, nurses have said they spend less than half their time with patients due to heavy administrative tasks, which delays relaying critical patient information to other care team members.

AI use at a clinical and operational level

Related: Laboratory automations accelerate diagnostic delivery

While all these challenges seem daunting, the good news is the strategic implementation of technology can address many of them simultaneously. For example, on a clinical level, AI can be leveraged for drug discovery to accelerate processes and the testing validation of certain pharmaceutical products. Radiologists can use AI to detect patterns in X-Ray and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images the human eye may not see to study large data sets more rapidly. It can also be utilised for clinical diagnosis. One of the most serious patient health threats inside a hospital is an infection of the blood known as sepsis. AI can help anticipate the occurrence of sepsis to give nurses an eight or nine-hour head start on treatment, which can help save lives.

From an operational standpoint, AI can help healthcare providers better manage resources to improve care capacity. Even before COVID-19, one of the main issues hospitals faced was having too many patients and not enough beds. Hospitals must remain efficient if they want to treat as many patients as possible. Based on data sets, AI can predict how long surgeries will take and then, five to 10 minutes before the surgery is over, send automated machine-to-machine notifications to alert support staff to prepare for room turnover.

Related: AI has arrived in medical imaging

AI integrations can also help improve operational connections between the many different Internet of Things (IoT) devices used in clinical environments. For example, the average hospital room has four or five smart medical devices monitoring patients in real time, all of which need to be constantly monitored to ensure optimal performance. Wouldn’t it be nice if hospital staff could receive a reminder notification on their mobile devices to routinely check equipment, just as they would to ensure proper medical supplies stocking for each room?

There is also an opportunity to extend the robotics automation solutions traditionally used in supply chain environments all the way to last-mile healthcare facilities. Hospitals are immense buildings with equipment and supplies stocked all over the place. Rather than removing staff from patient rounds to retrieve inventory, robots can be mobilised to provide nurses and doctors with the right products at the right time and location. If patient A needs medication Y, a robot can go down to the pharmacy to collect it and deliver it to the patient so the staff can focus on more imperative tasks.

What does the future hold?

The healthcare community is starting to make headway with AI-based automation integrations. But how will it evolve in the next five to 10 years?

Staff scheduling is one area where further development is expected. Currently, AI applications are well equipped to offer automated nurse scheduling solutions that achieve the right workload balance (i.e., when hospitals should schedule extra nurses and when a decreased staffing level is sufficient). In the future, this solution will be used across the whole care continuum (not only for nurses) to establish a more mobile and flexible clinical team model, with scheduling based on real-time and forecasted demand.

Efforts will also be made to boost communication between robots and front-line workers. Equipping these machines with enhanced intelligence, so they can monitor product availability, provide adequate substitutes, and foresee fulfilment challenges, will transform robots from a mere courier service to the nurse’s second brain.

There is also an opportunity to merge the capabilities of AI and robots. As mentioned before, one of the key challenges for the healthcare sector is an abundance of information and data. If we combine their respective strengths of analysis and mobility, AI can give robots the correct data and instruct them on the best next action to take – similar to how AI is used to guide front-line workers’ actions today. Embracing robots capable of independent decision-making in the course of care gives nurses the freedom to provide more personalised, attentive care to each patient. This, in turn, helps ensure one of healthcare’s founding values remains: the value of human touch.

Chris Sullivan

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

At the recently concluded Arab Health, Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) put the spotlight on the research and innovation currently at work across its healthcare ecosystem. One of the latest projects launched by DHCC at the show this year was C37, a private medical workspace designed for overseas and UAE-based doctors seeking to establish a part-time, independent practice.

On the sidelines of the show, we caught up with Dr Mohamed Elbaz, Center Manager, C37, Dubai Healthcare City Authority, to find out more about the project.

Related: Omnia Health Magazine August – September 2021

Dr Elbaz said: “C37, managed by DHCC, is the first private medical workspace, which is furnished and allows visiting as well as local doctors in Dubai and UAE to practice through these independent clinics with ease.”

The facility offers support from providing nursing staff, front office and back-office support related to revenue cycle management (RCM) billing to essential medical tools, medical consumables, and medical insurance. It also helps doctors get their professional license, malpractice insurance for all medical liabilities and any other challenges doctors might face while setting up their practice.

Related: Arab Health and Medlab Middle East generated over AED 756 million for the Dubai economy in 2020

Dr Mohamed Elbaz

“C37 is helping both the patients and doctors,” Dr Elbaz highlighted. “It’s helping doctors from overseas to work in Dubai without any challenges. Doctors can come here, and we will help them run their clinics in all aspects without any overhead costs and help with all the regulations and legalisations in Dubai. On the patient side, we are helping those who usually have to travel outside the country to be treated by specialist doctors to get their treatments right here in Dubai by welcoming these pioneer physicians to have their clinics here. This also helps them save the cost of travelling outside for treatment and leverages these specialists’ expertise for the local community’s wellbeing.”

C37 serves as an outpatient unit for most specialities. It is helping doctors to practice in partnership with DHCC, which already facilitates the services of 160 healthcare organisations. For example, this would make life easy for surgeons who would like to use the operation theatres for their patients. It also provides a part-time license as well as diagnostic and laboratory services, all in the same place. “C37 is like a state-of-the-art organisation, matching all the expectations of the doctors,” he added.

Centre of medical tourism

Today, Dubai is known as the centre of innovation, and the Emirate’s vision is to be the point of connection for all medical tourism in the Middle East and the GCC region. By creating C37 stressed Dr Elbaz, DHCC is helping medical tourism and is focusing on getting doctors and organisations who would like to be a part of the initiative.

“Our goal is to make C37 a hub for all doctors coming to the Middle East. So, patients who would like to travel to any other country overseas would rather come to see those specialist doctors right here in Dubai. Also, this is just the first phase of the project. We will soon roll out other phases that will be more advanced to accommodate bigger projects and more specialities,” he concluded.

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

The global COVID pandemic stretched the international healthcare system to its limits. Many lessons were learned as hospitals revisited their critical infrastructure, processes and procedures amid unprecedented demand.

In the last 18 months, medical organisations have had to react quickly to track COVID infections, radically scale up capacity, and treat patients remotely. All of these pressures have accelerated the adoption of digital health.

Related: Quality Management experts emphasise the importance of patient engagement in digital innovation

Digital health – a term that covers mobile health, e-health, telemedicine, and advanced computing sciences – has been instrumental in managing and curbing the COVID crisis. Such technologies also hold the key to relieving limited global healthcare capacity and reaching patients remotely, especially amid the international rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes and cancer.

Future-proofing regional healthcare

Healthcare companies in the Middle East are turning to high-tech solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI), wearables, blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT), to stem the rise of NCDs and future proof their healthcare offer.

Related: COVID-19 has accelerated a nascent, steady trend towards digital health

According to business consulting firm Frost and Sullivan, the Middle East wearables market is expected to grow significantly over the next few years as healthcare firms begin to remotely track disease trends and monitor chronic patients’ adherence to treatment schedules.

For example, biosensors can be embedded within wearable devices to continuously monitor a patient’s progress and provide data that can be analysed and lead to greater population health insights and better patient management. 

Frost & Sullivan anticipates that utilising AI platforms across healthcare workflows could result in a 10–15 per cent regional gain in productivity in the next two to three years. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are leading the rollout of AI in the region, with a focus on the financial and public sector, particularly in administration, public utilities, and healthcare, the firm said.

AI is also set to be a cornerstone technology for the regional rise in personal diagnostics treatment, said Takudzwa Musiyarira, research analyst at Frost & Sullivan in a recent blog.

“In the wake of rising medical costs, precision diagnostics have become more important than ever as they provide personalised care to patients,” he wrote. “This means that diseases can be diagnosed more accurately, an effective treatment programme can be put in place, and continuous monitoring of the patient is made possible. When combined with other new technologies such as blockchain and IoT, the expected benefits of AI are exponential.”

Britain partners with the Gulf

In June, the region’s leading global health event Arab Health showcased some of the world’s top digital health solutions – including many exhibitors from UK-headquartered companies.

In the last 18 months and beyond, UK digital healthcare firms have been cementing their regional presence, according to Simon Penney, Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“British companies are working with Gulf countries to help deliver their ambitious long-term healthcare ambitions. The UK is home to many pioneering digital health companies with a range of solutions, such as real-time data reporting, e-record management, self-care and remote monitoring,” Penney said.

British healthcare technology firms have honed their craft in the National Health Service (NHS) – the world’s largest single-payer universal healthcare system – and vendors say this heritage appeals to Middle Eastern healthcare clients.

“With a pedigree in medical schools and university-linked R&D centres, the UK is seen as a leader in digital healthcare,” said Jonathan Elliott, international director at IMMJ Systems – a British company that digitises legacy paper health records.

IMMJ, which currently manages around 15 NHS contracts, is currently in talks with major UAE healthcare suppliers and is looking to pilot its technology in the country this year.

“The NHS is renowned around the world and it is a real selling point for us as we pitch to regional partners,” Elliott added.

UK firms secure deals across the region

In a recent example of a major UK-UAE collaboration, Dubai’s Osteopathic Health Centre (OHC) unveiled the Middle East’s first digital health library in partnership with Britain’s ORCHA (the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps) – the world’s largest healthcare app review and distribution company.

OHC takes a holistic approach to medicine, specialising in non-invasive and manual therapies. Its new digital health library will enable around 40,000 customers in the country to access a library of health apps to support issues such as smoking cessation, mental health support, allergies and obesity.

“Digital health is an idea whose time has come, for our country and our region. Evidence is mounting year by year that apps improve outcomes,” said Nargis Raza, OHC proprietor and director. “We’ll be using our app library to recommend the best content to help patients self-manage as part of their care programmes.”

Another UK company to clinch a recent contract is In Touch with Health (ITWH), a British patient-flow management company that has secured a deal with a major Qatari hospital network to integrate its patient appointment scheduling solution into one data-rich system.

The ITWH platform currently processes over 30 million outpatient appointments annually and supports over 110 hospitals in the UK and abroad, managing all aspects of a patient’s hospital journey, from patient self-check-in to discharge and beyond for remote care.

Yara Saf, international account director at ITWH said: “We aim to deploy our solution in Qatar by the end of the year. There is a huge appetite for health technology in the region. We’re aiming to take the platform to the UAE, Kuwait and Egypt next.”

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian companies are also in active discussion with Britain to partner on major projects. Digital innovators such as Helicon Health – which has its roots in University College London – are in talks with officials to bring remote monitoring technology to the Kingdom. Helicon, which is also in talks with Qatar and Bahrain, uses machine learning applied to electronic health records to help identify patients who are unwell with an acute illness but not receiving the correct treatment.

According to Penney, the UK’s history of medical innovation chimes with the Gulf region’s own ambitions for a futuristic digitised healthcare sector.

“Collaboration between the UK and the Middle East is growing rapidly. Technologies such as AI are emerging as key enablers for multiple sectors of the regional economy, including healthcare,” he said. “With strategic foresight, bolstered by a keen appetite for global technology and partnership, the Gulf is on course to become a real hub for healthcare innovation.”

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

Sotrovimab, an anti-viral treatment for COVID-19, is now available for early treatment of certain categories of COVID-19 patients in the UAE following an agreement between the Abu Dhabi Department of Health, the group purchasing organisation (GPO) Rafed, and biopharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). As a result, Abu Dhabi was the first location globally to receive this drug.

In an interview with Omnia Health Magazine, Theyab Al Mansouri, Executive Director of Supply Chain & Operations, Rafed, said that the GPO was established in September 2020 and plays a vital role in ensuring timely availability of supplies, especially when it comes to the logistics of COVID-19 vaccination. “Abu Dhabi becoming the first place to receive Sotrovimab is another feather in our hat,” he shared.

Related: Birmingham researchers confirm speed, simplicity and sensitivity for new COVID-19 test

Moreover, Rafed has played a critical role in receiving the millions of COVID-19 vaccines from the manufacturers and supplying the vaccine and equipment related to COVID-19 to hospitals and healthcare facilities across the UAE. The company has a state-of-the-art facility in Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (KIZAD) that streamlines the delivery to the healthcare facilities, ensuring the vaccine reaches these places promptly. The KIZAD facility is one of the largest healthcare and medical supply storage distribution centres that handle over three million COVID-19 vaccines each month. The facility is powered by cold storage technology provided by G42 Healthcare, which enables them to cater to various temperature ranges such as the minus 80 deep freezer capability for Pfizer and similar medication.

“It is vital to streamline and centralise the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine and related items. Our team works with an extended network of SEHA hospitals, disease prevention screening centres, mobile clinic solutions, vaccination clinics and public health schools,” Al Mansouri highlighted.

Related: Sustaining a COVID-free medical facility during the world’s worst pandemic

He stressed that Rafed strives to offer a high level of service, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. The majority of the company’s work over the past year has been to supply COVID-19 vaccination and pharmaceutical and medical supplies. He said that Rafed would continue to forge partnerships with key players, both locally and internationally, to extend the ability to reduce costs for healthcare organisations and maintain quality.

He concluded: “Our goal is to offer more timely supply to our customers and make sure patients are safe and have the required supplies that they need.”

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

Have you ever found yourself sleeping seven to eight hours a night but waking up still feeling tired? Are fatigue and daytime sleepiness conditions that you can relate to? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, there is a good chance that you are lacking not just in quantity but also quality sleep. You may even be dealing with a sleep disorder.

The simplest definition of a sleep disorder is a case that prevents a person from enjoying high-quality sleep during the night. These are situations where a person often wakes up in the middle of the night, feels restlessness, or just cannot feel ‘rested’ no matter how long they stay in bed. These disorders can sap the energy you bring into each day. More worryingly, failure to treat them can also lead to other health complications like high blood pressure, irregular heart rate, and stroke.

Related: Snorers who suffer from sleep apnoea at increased risk of Type 2 diabetes

The most common sleep disorders in the UAE are obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and insomnia. Sleep apnoea is a serious condition in which a person's breathing is frequently interrupted during sleep. In the UAE, it has an estimated prevalence of approximately 23 per cent in males and 19.5 per cent in females. Sleep apnoea can also affect a person’s ability to safely perform normal daily activities and poses long-term health problems.

Since 2020, sleep has been significantly disrupted by COVID-19. Outside of the usual causes of a bad night’s sleep such as chronic stress, people have dealt with inconsistent schedules, homeschooling, job loss, financial woes, and elevated screen time – all of which can contribute to sleep deprivation. With these pandemic-induced factors taken into consideration, doctors are seeing the increased onset of sleep problems.

Related: A lens on sleep apnoea

Dr Julio Gomez-Seco, Consultant Pulmonologist and Sleep Respiratory Medicine, Fakeeh University Hospital said: “We have noted increased incidence in the UAE for sleep apnoea, insomnia, and other sleep disturbances, especially due to the pandemic. More people seem to come in reporting fatigue and exhaustion over the past year while expressing the impact of personal challenges and stresses – a phenomenon being addressed as ‘coronasomnia’. At our sleep laboratory, our goal is to better understand and treat these sleep disturbances in each individual.”

The risk of sleep apnoea is also known to increase with weight and obesity. Among people with a body mass index (BMI) of higher than 30 kg/m2, 70 per cent are deemed as high-risk for sleep apnoea. Speaking to the role of weight and obesity in sleep disorders, Dr Gomez-Seco said: “In obese people, fat deposits in the upper respiratory tract narrow the airway, ultimately causing symptoms of sleep apnoea. In the UAE, we face a 34.7 per cent prevalence rate of obesity, making the issue of obstructive sleep apnoea particularly urgent for us. This only emphasises the need for further awareness and education among our patients so they can manage their condition more proactively.”

Sleep disorders can affect anyone and at any age. Whether you’re a student facing pressure during exam periods or an office worker facing stress brought on by multiple projects, we all need to be conscious about our sleep habits and what we can stand to improve. Dr Gomez-Seco shares five tips for managing sleep habits and avoiding any potential disorders:

1. Have a set sleep schedule – One of the keys to good sleep is establishing a routine, which is why it is important to have a wind-down schedule of 30 to 60 minutes each night before going to bed. Get your body accustomed to sleeping and waking at specific times and you will likely find falling asleep (and getting out of bed in the morning) a little easier. Most smartwatches and smartphones have specific settings that support such a schedule.
2. Start paying attention to your sleep stages – It’s always good to have a baseline understanding of your everyday sleep pattern. You should be conscious of how restful your sleep is by looking at the different stages of light, deep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. This is where it can be useful to refer to a sleep tracking device such as a smartwatch or mobile app. These help you identify your sleep stages each night and better understand your moments of ‘peak’ sleep vs. your more wakeful moments. If you prefer not to wear a device while sleeping, maybe use it once or twice a week on the same days to understand your average.
3. Reduce your screen time just before bed – All of us, to some extent, are guilty of looking at our phones in bed. Some of us for far too long and right before we shut our eyes to rest. It is recommended to stop using electronic devices for at least 30 minutes before bedtime. If your mind and body associate your bed with sleep, you’ll find it less difficult to drift off. On the other hand, if you spend your time in bed deliberately staying awake, you may pay for it later by being unable to sleep when you want to. Establish a regular pattern of relaxing behaviours, such as reading, for 10 minutes to an hour before bedtime.
4. Have an active lifestyle – Given the link to obesity, most sleep disorders can be avoided by simply having an active lifestyle. While everyone’s routine can vary, people who generally struggle to fall asleep should consider exercising three-four hours before bedtime. Adding exercise to your daily routine is also another way of ensuring you stick to a steady wind-down schedule, as your body falls into a rhythm.
5. Save tomorrow’s problems for tomorrow – While this may be the hardest to control, it is crucial to resolve your worries or concerns before bedtime. Stress management is a big part of achieving quality sleep and many people turn to meditation to ease anxiety. Another strategy that could help is to jot down what's on your mind and then set it aside for tomorrow.

While these tips can generally help you mitigate sleep disturbances, they can be hard to practice consistently. What is most important is to be conscious of your nightly sleep habits and quality. On warning signs, Dr Gomez-Seco advised: “If you are getting seven to eight hours of sleep and still feel sleepy, you should discuss this with your physician or consider seeing a sleep physician. Furthermore, despite the sleep medicine community’s recommendation for sleep hours, some individuals may still need more hours to wake up feeling rested.

“At Fakeeh University Hospital, we have a specialised laboratory for sleep disorders, which is carefully prepared to simulate the home atmosphere to provide patients with the ideal conditions of warmth and comfort to encourage sleep. We then use special devices that follow all functional activities of patients as they sleep through the night. Based on the sleep test report, the specialist can then identify the problem more accurately and start the appropriate treatment.”

Fakeeh University Hospital’s Sleep Lab brings together multiple specialists to examine sleep disorders in patients, assessing anatomical causes in ENT, dental, and facial areas, along with cardiovascular risk factors including obesity. Soon, the laboratory will also collaborate with the hospital’s Neurology department to cater to neurological disorders such as parasomnia, narcolepsy, and nocturnal epilepsy.

China, a vast country with a huge population of 1.4 billion, has emerged as the second-largest economy in the world, according to GDP, after its fast growth during the last four decades.

Extended life expectancy, an aging population, and greater expectations about quality of life have driven the China healthcare market to become the second-largest healthcare market in the world, after years of strong double-digit growth.

In 2017, the Chinese government launched the Healthy China 2030 initiative, which outlined strategies in the healthcare sector encompassing the whole healthcare ecosystem, including medical system reform, population health management, and technological innovation. 

Against this backdrop, this Omdia report is designed to provide a regular update on the China healthcare market, covering the latest news about government initiatives, industry dynamics, and macro environment insights. 

The broad coverage of this report aims to offer a wide perspective to help readers identify potential business opportunities and stay aware of the latest trends in a rapidly changing market. 

The National Health Commission of China released Healthcare Development Statistical Bulletin for Year 2020 on July 13th

The annual bulletin presents broad healthcare statistics, covering medical resources, medical services, healthcare expenditure and epidemiology. Even though patient visits dropped by 11% in 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic, other key measurements of medical resources and healthcare expenditure kept growing last year. Omdia summarizes some of the key insights by drawing from the five-year statistics between 2016 and 2020.

Since 2016, the number of hospitals in China grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5%, which in real terms adds about 1200 new hospitals every year. 

The increase in the number of hospital beds in China presents a similar picture growing at a CAGR of 5.3%, reaching 9.1M in 2020, an increase of 338,000 beds per year since 2016.

Total national health expenditure in China reached 7,230.6 billion Yuan in 2020. With a CAGR growth of 11.8% since 2016, total national health expenditure is estimated to account for 7.1% of GDP, which is its highest ever proportional value.  Healthcare spending per capita achieved a CAGR of 11% between 2016 and 2020, reaching 5146 Yuan in 2020.

Number of Hospital and Health Spending in China between 2016 and 2020

Affluent residents and an aging population spurred demands for healthcare services, which supported China’s healthcare equipment market CAGR of 13.6% between 2015 and 2020. 

But still, China only spends around 20% of the OECD per capita spending level. Total national health expenditure of China accounts for 7.1% of GDP compared to an average of 9.9% in OECD countries. The full potential of the Chinese healthcare market has yet to be realized. As per Ministry of Industry & Information Technology of China (MIIT), China’s medical equipment market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15% between 2021 and 2015. 

As per Healthcare Equipment Intelligence Service of Omdia, the global healthcare equipment grows at a CAGR of 6-8%. China market will grow at a much faster pace in the coming years.

Chinese medical infrastructure construction is moving ahead at pace

Medical infrastructure construction is a hot term in China. 

Since 2018 the National Health Commission issued multiple documents, urging all grade-two and grade-three hospitals to upgrade facilities with specific equipment types and to increase overall bed capacity.

The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the insufficient resources and infrastructure of China’s public health system. Since the pandemic, China has invested significantly in new medical facilities. In the latest 14th Healthcare 5-Year Plan released in March this year, the initiatives to support healthcare infrastructure improvement continued.

The 14th Healthcare 5-Year Plan sets targets to strengthen infectious disease prevention and control, build state-level and regional level medical centers, and stipulate that hospitals upgrade facilities.

The provinces and municipal cities drafted and initiated plans to renovate, expand and/or build medical facilities. Shanghai municipal government, which serves 24 million residents, released its major projects for 2021, including 14 medical projects. Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province, listed 13 medical construction projects for 2021, with total investment budgeted at 10 billion yuan.

Omdia estimates that between 2021 and 2025, the healthcare equipment market size driven by medical facility and infrastructure investments in China will reach 600 billion US dollar. The demand for medical equipment is projected to experience a surge, particularly for categories including respiratory, cardiovascular, neonatal treatment, and medical imaging.

The growing number of medical facilities also attracts non-medical players. Wanda, China’s largest real estate developer by sales, made multiple huge investments in building hospitals since 2016.  Kweichow Moutai Group, the world's most valuable alcohol company, inaugurated a hospital in April, investing 290 million US dollars in the build.

Sally Ye is a health care technology analyst at the Healthcare Technology division of Omdia, a sister news and information portal of Medtech Insight. Located in the US, Europe and China, Omdia’s health care team produces a wide range of syndicated and customized reports, including a monthly China Healthcare Market Update, the Healthcare IT Topical Report, and the Healthcare Equipment Database, as well as in-depth reports and analysis on the medical imaging industry.

Dr Taghreed Almahmeed, a surgeon at Dubai’s Al Zahra Hospital, is one of a handful of UAE surgeons with knowledge of a brand-new technique to exactly pinpoint non-palpable breast tumours via the use of a new subcutaneous radar reflector.

The size of a grain of rice, the reflector is placed under the skin via a small needle. It helps to locate the cancerous growth and its depth more accurately under the skin, meaning the surgery only removes what’s necessary from the breast.

Related: Breast cancer survival increases when time between diagnosis and concluding treatments is limited

Not only is the new technology more effective in increasing the chances of complete cancer removal, but it is less invasive, and its accuracy reduces the chance of second surgery and any associated delays in follow-on, life-saving treatment, such as radiation therapy.

“If the tumour is removed the first time with accuracy with negative margins, meaning there are no cancer cells at the borders of the tumour, then there is no need for a second surgery,” Dr Almahmeed explains. “If margins are positive, the patient needs to be told she needs yet another surgery which can be frustrating, and it means waiting for insurance approval and setting a new date to remove more breast tissue. We then have to wait for healing of the second wound to proceed for radiation which is typically four weeks post-operation to ensure a healthy recovery.”

Related: New ways to detect and treat breast cancer

Another advantage is that a more focused, concentrated surgical incision provides a more positive post-surgery cosmetic outcome for the patient.

“This state-of-the-art new reflector offers people with cancer a real advantage – not only does it allow for more effective surgical intervention in terms of tumour location and removal, but any procedure that reduces the time between breast surgery and radiation treatment can make a tangible difference to people’s recovery,” adds Dr Almahmeed, a U.S. board-certified surgeon and Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS).