Dubai: The healthcare and education industries in the region and elsewhere are slowly adopting digital devices and content, according to experts at a session during the ArabNet Digital Summit which took place at Atlantis, The Palm on Monday.
Healthcare and education professionals have traditionally been slow in incorporating digital devices and content into their daily work, both regionally and internationally.
Doctors, patients and students can use mobile devices and digital content, such as mobile apps and services, to perform a number of activities.
Patients can use mobile apps to monitor their health, said Rupesh Chatwani, technology VC at ERBD. For example, they can measure their blood sugar or blood pressure using mobile apps.
Baris Aksoy, director of Intel Capital, said that there is “no mobile presence for doctors” in the region, adding that it would take a long time before the concept gains momentum.
Digital content missing
Meanwhile, on the education front, more students are now using tablets to learn in classrooms, rather than traditional textbooks, Aksoy said. But “what’s missing is content,” he added.
Chatwani said there are more regional investments in content companies that can produce digital content for the education industry.
According to the 5th edition of the Arab Social Media Report, launched by the Dubai School of Government’s Governance and Innovation Programme, of the teachers surveyed, 55 per cent indicated that social media is used in classrooms as a resource.
However, more than half the parents said their children do not utilise technological tools in the classroom, while 10 per cent said their children have access to social media in the classroom.
