The future global integration of healthcare could mean that the Arabian Gulf States will become an international healthcare hub by 2025, according to a top executive with one of the world’s largest healthcare providers.

The Arabian Gulf States are likely to experience the increasing levels of internal and external investment, as well as large numbers of regional patients looking for world-class healthcare closer to home.

The region, heavily burdened with the lifestyle diseases that plague the developed world, a young and growing population, and patients’ desire for culturally-sensitive competency when seeking care, creates opportunity for providers who can deliver local clinical excellence integrated into a global healthcare platform.

“Today, we are well on our way to developing the first globally integrated healthcare system. The Arabian Gulf States are an important part of our strategy,” said Dr Marc Harrison, chief of International Business Development at Cleveland Clinic, a US-based non-profit healthcare group, during the annual Arab Health Congress running in Dubai, UAE from January 25 to 28.

Via a common electronic medical record and innovative e-health offerings, Cleveland Clinic has connected its facilities in Canada and the UAE with its extensive operations in the United States.

Cleveland Clinic operates the Mubadala-owned Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, a culturally coherent and quartenary sub-specialty hospital that, in the first nine months of operations, has cared for patients from more than 30 countries seeking highly specialized services. For five years, Dr Harrison served as CEO of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, taking it from concept to full operations.

Cleveland Clinic also manages Abu Dhabi Health Services Company-owned Sheikh Khalifa Medical Center, a healthcare entity with a strong educational focus and a provider of unique services like paediatric heart surgery.

“Increasingly, Cleveland Clinic is able to deliver the right care in the right place at the right time, worldwide. Our global integration is focused around two common themes, patient centeredness and Cleveland Clinic culture,” added Dr Harrison. “On a human level, we understand the healthcare needs of the communities we serve. We preserve the personal touch while technology allows us to collaborate on specific patient needs, across borders.”

“Ten years ago, replication of Cleveland Clinic’s culture and operations on the ground in Abu Dhabi was a concept on a piece of paper,” said Dr Harrison.

“Today there are more than 30 specialties and 50 subspecialties providing highly complex care to very sick patients in a multi-disciplinary fashion, including robotic cardiovascular surgery and transcatheter deployment of heart valves.  As a system, we are carefully considering how to balance development of new facilities with use of distance health strategies. Clearly, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s location and the Clinic’s distance health solutions will create a potent set of capabilities that will make the Arabian Gulf a global hub for world-class healthcare.”

Other markets including Saudi Arabia and Qatar are rapidly developing internal capability while still sending tens of thousands of patients abroad annually. Cleveland Clinic looks forward to leveraging its capabilities to help new populations.

Cleveland Clinic participates annually in Arab Health and in 2016 has brought more than 25 medical experts from its US facilities to the congress, across disciplines such as radiology, orthopaedics, paediatrics, gastroenterology, cardiology, rheumatology, and critical care.

Cleveland Clinic will have two exhibits during the conference: Cleveland Clinic Center for Continuing Education and Cleveland Clinic Laboratories. – TradeArabia News Service