Abu Dhabi set to establish Centre of Digital Health to analyse data, develop solutions
Step will leverage Malaffi, the health information exchange system used across the emirate
Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi is set to launch a centre that will develop data platforms and allow for the accelerated adoption of digital services in the emirate’s health sector.
The Centre of Digital Health (CDH) will be developed by healthcare regulator, the Department of Health (DoH), in collaboration with health-care providers Pure Health and G42 Healthcare.
The new centre will leverage Malaffi, the health information exchange platform used across Abu Dhabi healthcare facilities, and other digital portals and standards to collect, process and analyse health and patient data. It will also integrate artificial intelligence and big data to aid the decision making process, enable policymaking and aid clinical research. CDH services and information will then be available to health facilities, government entities and other relevant entities under strict data security and patient confidentiality standards.
Harnessing health data
“Under the directives of our wise leadership, the DoH continues to solidify Abu Dhabi’s position as a life science incubator and a regional and international digital health destination, thanks to its advanced infrastructure and digital capabilities. Through this joint venture, we look forward to harnessing health data in accordance with the highest standards of information security to further enhance healthcare outcomes in the Emirate and provide quality healthcare to all the members of the community. Establishing the CDH is another testament to the effectiveness of public-private partnerships and the efforts made in exchanging health information in the emirate,” said Dr Jamal Al Kaabi, DoH undersecretary.
“In the ever-evolving healthcare sector, the importance of data analytics cannot be overemphasised. As we evolve ourselves to leverage the compute power that is increasing in quantum leaps, and make AI based outcomes a norm, the CDH will be a key pillar for Pure Health. The centre will enable our drive to improve health outcomes through pre-emptive detection, predictive diagnostics and personalised medicine,” said Shaista Asif, group chief operating officer at Pure Health.
Enable insights
As part of the collaboration, DoH Abu Dhabi and G42 Healthcare will work together to develop solutions that provide value to a variety of healthcare ecosystem participants, from patients, providers, payers, regulators, to pharma, and beyond. G42 Healthcare will use its proprietary HealthSight platform to power the unification of multimodal healthcare datasets and enable insight generation through advance analytics and machine learning.
“The range of solutions we are developing will not only help achieve the primary goal of healthcare such as better outcomes through patient-centric care, but will also enable reduction in cost of care, improved experience for patients and care staff including physicians and nurses,” said Ashish Koshy, group chief exective officer at G42 Healthcare.
Malaffi milestone
In line with the ongoing efforts to enhance patient experience and improve the quality of healthcare and patient outcomes in Abu Dhabi, ‘Malaffi’ has recently announced that all public and private hospitals in the emirate are now connected to the platform. This was an important milestone towards allowing healthcare providers to safely exchange important patient health information in real-time, creating a centralised database of unified patient records.