New Dubai robotic centre by Aster to help stroke patients walk again in weeks
FDA-approved robots to tackle mobility disorders, paediatric autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy
Dubai: A new advanced robotic rehabilitation centre coming up in Dubai will use 18 US FDA-approved robots that promise to help stroke patients and people with severe neurological movement disorders regain mobility in weeks rather than months.
This was revealed as Aster DM Healthcare announced the facility, modelled after the successful Aster Al Raffah Walk Again Advanced Robotic Rehabilitation Centre in Muscat, Oman.
The new facility will be located on Sheikh Zayed Road and will be operational in six months, Alisha Moopen, managing director and group CEO of Aster DM Healthcare said at a press conference at the World Health Expo (WHX) 2026 in Dubai on Tuesday.
She said the centre will bring internationally proven technologies to the UAE, enabling patients to access advanced treatment locally without travelling abroad.
“We're talking about more than 18 US FDA-approved robots that would be coming to the centre which helps people with severe neurological movement disorders, people who have had stroke, who have not been able to move for years, who can actually start walking again,” Alisha explained.
Accelerated recovery timeline
Speaking to Gulf News in an interview later, she said the centre promises dramatically reduced treatment timelines.
“What we typically get done in 12 months, we try to do it in six to eight weeks,” Alisha said.
Developed in partnership with the Walk Again Neuro-Robotic Rehab Centre from India, the centre will deploy cutting-edge technologies including robotic exoskeletons, brain-computer interface systems, neuromodulation therapies, and advanced gait and upper-limb rehabilitation solutions to support neuroplasticity-driven recovery for neurological, spinal, stroke-related and mobility conditions.
Alisha said the Muscat centre, which opened six months ago, has already demonstrated promising results. Starting with 25 beds, it has expanded to 45 beds due to demand, treating patients who had lost hope of regaining movement after strokes.
However, she clarified that the Dubai centre will initially offer outpatient services only.
Paediatric breakthrough
A key component of the Dubai centre will be the region's first advanced paediatric neurorehabilitation facility dedicated to supporting children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), cerebral palsy, intellectual disability and other neurodevelopmental conditions.
The paediatric centre will introduce a futuristic ecosystem combining AI-enabled cognitive mapping, immersive VR-based learning, digital brain-training platforms and US FDA-approved neuromodulation-supported technologies, along with structured developmental therapies.
“For children, it's more like transcranial magnetic stimulation and other therapies. It's about doing a full brain mapping to understand what is over-stimulated or under-stimulated, then using targeted neuromodulation therapies,” Alisha explained.
Robotic surgery expansion
Beyond rehabilitation, Aster is strengthening its robotic surgery capabilities across its network. While robotic surgery platforms like Da Vinci have been introduced earlier, the company is now deploying the latest models to further enable precision-led, minimally invasive procedures.
In a medical milestone, the group said Medcare became the first centre in the world to treat an international patient with Itvisma, a revolutionary intrathecal gene therapy for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). The UAE is the second country after the USA to authorise Itvisma (onasemnogene abeparvovec), for gene therapy treatment of SMA for both adults and children from the age of two.
