Why health is becoming the world’s most valuable form of wealth

We spend a lot of time talking about technology that makes our lives faster. Artificial intelligence, automation, smart cities, flying taxis. All of that matters. But there is another technological shift underway that matters even more to people’s everyday lives, and we are still not giving it the attention it deserves.

The future of health.

How long can we stay strong? How long will we stay independent? How much of our lives do we spend truly living, rather than managing disease?

This is no longer a distant promise. It is happening now, and the UAE has the chance to be at its centre.

When I studied health economics years ago, I was introduced to two opposing ideas about our future. One assumed we would live longer, but spend many of those extra years sick, moving from one chronic condition to another. The other was more optimistic: that medical innovation would allow us to compress illness into a short period at the very end of life, while extending the years we spend in good health.

Back then, the pessimistic view felt more realistic. Medicine was good at slowing disease, not curing it. People survived cancer longer, but often at a high cost to quality of life. Chronic illness became something you learned to live with.

What has changed since then is that biology itself is becoming programmable. Today, breakthroughs in immunotherapy, gene editing, and metabolic medicine are no longer experimental concepts. They are reshaping outcomes for real people. Cancer patients who once had few options now see durable remissions. Autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, are increasingly treated at the level of immune regulation, rather than just symptom control. Genetic diseases that once defined a lifetime may soon be treated early, or even cured.

Perhaps the most visible example is the revolution in obesity and diabetes treatment. GLP-1 therapies are already reducing obesity rates for the first time in decades. Type 2 diabetes, which affects the vast majority of diabetics worldwide, is increasingly treatable at the root. This is not just about weight. It is about avoiding cardiovascular disease, joint replacements, renal failure, and decades of reduced mobility.

For people, the benefits are tangible. Fewer years spent sick. Fewer medications. Fewer hospital visits. More energy. More independence. More time with family. More ability to work, travel, and enjoy life well into older age.

Health is quietly becoming the most valuable form of wealth.

This is where the UAE has a unique opportunity. The UAE is one of the few places in the world where population health, innovation, and policy alignment can move quickly together. It has a young but eventually aging population, a strong focus on prevention, and a health system that is digitally advanced, data-enabled, and increasingly outcome-driven.

More importantly, the UAE’s health vision already aligns with this future. The focus is shifting from treating illness to maintaining well-being. From reactive care to prevention. From fragmented systems to integrated, patient-centred ones. This creates an ideal environment to lead in healthspan innovation.

Imagine a healthcare approach where metabolic disease is addressed early, before complications arise. Where genetic screening enables early intervention rather than lifelong management. Where immunotherapy and personalised medicine are integrated into standard care pathways. Where citizens and residents see health not as something to fix when it breaks, but as something to actively invest in.

The economic implications are equally significant. Healthier populations are more productive populations. Fewer sick days. Longer working lives by choice, not necessity. Lower long-term healthcare costs. More resilience in the face of demographic change.

For a region positioning itself as a global hub for talent, capital, and innovation, this matters. The UAE can attract not only biotech companies but also clinical trials, research partnerships, and health-focused startups that seek to operate in a system that values speed, data, and real-world impact. It can become a place where new therapies are not only developed, but responsibly deployed at scale.

We need to stop treating health innovation as a cost and start treating it as an investment in infrastructure. We need to evaluate preventive care by long-term gains in productivity and well-being. We need health consumers to be informed and empowered.

Living healthy to 100 should not sound radical. Spending only a small fraction of life in disease should not sound unrealistic. Science is moving in that direction. People are already behaving as if it matters. The UAE has every chance to be at the centre of this transformation. Not just as a user of new health technologies, but as a place where the future of healthy living is actively shaped.

And that, more than any gadget or algorithm, is a future worth getting excited about.

Frederik Roeder is a health economist and writer based in Dubai