As part of Dubai Health Authority’s participation in the UAE Innovation Month 2018, the authority showcased some of its latest achievements at its Innovation Hub last week. The UAE Innovation Month, which is the largest celebration of its kind that celebrates the best ideas in innovation, was organised under the directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
His Excellency Humaid Al Qutami, Chairman of the Board and Director General of DHA, said Shaikh Mohammad’s directives to extend the UAE Innovation Week to a month this year is a testimony to the success of the initiative, which promotes a healthy competitive environment among different entities that strive to provide quality services that achieve customer satisfaction.
Al Qutami added that the innovation month provides the authority with an opportunity to interact with the public in addition to displaying its services as well as exchanging experiences and ideas with participating organisations.
DHA showcases a number of initiatives this year. Its Innovative Centre is the first of its kind to utilise AI and internet of things in providing medical fitness and occupational health screening services.
Maisa Al Bustani, Director of Medical Fitness Services Department at DHA, said the centre aims to provide medical fitness and occupational screening services using AI without any human interference, providing a one-stop destination for all medical fitness tests required for completing employment visas.
She added the centre uses the latest AI technology to identify the customer through their facial and iris print. It then conducts the tests using a specialised robot. After the tests are completed, the system automatically sends the results to the concerned parties in a secure manner. They will also be able to make payment via smart channels such as Apple pay, Samsung pay, mPay and ePay to name a few.
Furthermore, instead of taking the vital measurements of customers manually such as BMI, weight and height, it uses a smart scale machine that will take all these measurements automatically as soon as the customer steps on the scale and send them to the SALEM system electronically.
Al Bustani said the service, which is paperless and requires no data entry, is the first autonomous government service and was launched in line with the UAE leadership’s vision of using AI in serving the public.
DHA also revealed the results of the trial phase of the Happiness Prescribing Programme during its participation in the UAE Innovation Month. The programme is designed to identify and implement prevention programmes among pre-diabetics and people with high-risk factors to reduce the risk of the incidence of diabetes.
Dr Hanan Obaid, Consultant Family Physician and Head of Acute and Chronic Diseases, said this programme is a pioneering model of community health care for the prevention of diabetes in Dubai.
She said the new approach does not depend on prescriptions and is an integrated behavioural, social and psychological treatment in line with the vision of the UAE and the Dubai plan 2021 and DHA strategy of prevention and developing healthy lifestyles.
The six-month trial phase, which was implemented at Al Barsha and Nad Al Hamar Health Centers with the participation of Dubai Ladies Club, Bel Remaitha Club for Men and Sharjah University, was conducted on 43 participants —25 women and 18 men.
“The results found that the participants achieved good rates of weight loss ranging from 7-11kg during the period,” she said.
“For 13 per cent of the women the risk of developing diabetes during the next ten years went from severe to intermediate and for 7 per cent it went from intermediate to low. For 7 per cent of the men, the risk went down from high to moderate.
“The participants expressed happiness and satisfaction with the programme. Diabetes affects individuals and society negatively.
“The health sector is also affected due to the increase in expenditure for treating the disease and its complications.”
Digital medicine
Smart Headache Clinic is an extension to the two multidisciplinary headache clinics in Nad Al Hamar and Al Barsha Health Centers, launched by DHA last year, to follow up on existing patients through telemedicine using a RoboDoc.
The patient is present at one of the clinics with the family medicine doctor and receives his consultation from a specialised doctor via the RoboDoc from DHA hospitals.
DHA TV is an online media channel that can be downloaded from the App store or Google Play. The app is called DHA Media and provides users with a wide variety of content such as live coverage of DHA’s conferences and events, tips for prevention of lifestyle diseases, and awareness videos.
The Dubai Genome initiative aims to map the genomes of the entire population including residents and use artificial intelligence to analyse genetic data, to change the face of medical care through personalised medicine and prior detection of individuals at risk.
The Moving Lab, a high-tech lab, visits people of determination, the elderly and patients who live in remote areas to conduct medical tests, saving them time and effort.
The Consultation Station is a mobile consultation room that replicates a doctor’s office, allowing physicians to perform live consultations that includes check-ups and monitoring of acute and chronic diseases thereby providing patients easy and convenient access to healthcare.
The Physiotherapy Sensors is a wireless motion capture technology that consists of highly precise wearable motion sensors that provide real-time visualisations of motor functions in patients. It reduces the overall healthcare costs and improves outcomes by delivering interactive care to patients.
Virtual reality and 3D printing showcase the design and medical components for creating 3D printing models that are used in patients.
Artificial intelligence is used to identify retina damage from thousands of eye scans fed into the system, helping doctors in diagnosing and treating patients suffering from damage effectively and quickly.