Preterm infants or premature babies are born at less than 37 weeks of gestational age. Low birthweight (LBW) infants are born weighing below 2.5kg at birth regardless of gestational age. An estimated 15 million people are born prematurely and more than 20 million are born with LBW each year.

Prematurity and LBW remain the leading causes of death in newborns and children under five years of age. Preterm and LBW infants have a higher risk of developmental disabilities including cerebral palsy and retinopathy of prematurity. The consequences of prematurity and LBW may continue into adulthood, increasing the risk of adult-onset chronic conditions such as obesity and diabetes.

Despite its magnitude and urgency, premature birth remains one of the most underserved humane causes globally. Prevention of deaths due to preterm birth has made the slowest progress over the decades compared to progress made in other diseases such as malaria.

According to the most recent estimates, preterm birth is a leading cause of under-five mortality, claiming nearly 1 million lives every year, with the rate of preterm birth increasing in many countries.

The top global causes of death, in order of total number of lives lost, are associated with three broad categories: cardiovascular, respiratory and neonatal conditions – which include birth asphyxia and birth trauma, neonatal sepsis and infections, and preterm birth complications.

The World Health Organisation commemorates the World Prematurity Day on November 17^th of each year, raising awareness about premature birth. Individuals and organisations from more than 100 countries celebrate this day through organising special events and making commitments to help address preterm birth and improve the status of preterm babies and their families, specifically their mothers.

The World Prematurity Day 2022 is being celebrated under the theme “A parent's embrace: a powerful therapy”, promoting skin-to-skin contact from the moment of birth. Skin-to-skin contact after birth is an evidence-based form of care. Provided in a timely manner, skin-to-skin contact can save lives and improve health outcomes among preterm babies. Research has found that skin-to-skin contact between babies and their mothers stimulates a specific part of the newborn's brain, bringing scores of benefits for babies and their mothers alike.

Leo & Mia Foundation is devoted to the cause of preterm babies and their mothers. Our goal is to develop an ecosystem that enables women and parents to pursue their roles as caregivers. We also aim to educate communities to develop a better understanding of preterm birth, and support mothers, caregivers, and healthcare professionals to provide necessary care to infants.

Over the years, we have been engaging with parents to ensure proper Essential Newborn Care, empowering parents with tools, education and awareness on family centred care for preterm newborns.

The training and supportive supervision that Leo & Mia Foundation provides aim to advance skills and competencies of frontline healthcare workers, facilitating cost-effective care for preterm babies.

Leo & Mia Foundation’s vision is anchored in the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG3), which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, including putting an end to preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age by 2030.

With a focus on early interventions, the Foundation develops a continuum of care for preterm babies in the first 1,000 days of their lives. We celebrate the miracle of life everyday, engaging communities to actively change the narrative around preterm births, develop better understanding and encourage empathy. 

Emerging data shows that healthcare providers in the UAE are making inroads into precision medicine, a new methodology which is moving healthcare from a ‘one size fits all’ to a targeted and personalised approach.

In the field of genetics, the rise of precision medicine in the MENA region, which reportedly has a high predominance of faulty genes largely due to consanguineous marriages, may benefit significantly from a precise crucial allele reference genome.

“Personalised medicine is certainly transforming the healthcare ecosystem for the better, driven by digitalisation and a rapidly rising corpus of knowledge that is redefining how we perceive the origins and development of fatal diseases,” said Dr. Maryam Matar, Founder and Chairperson, UAE Genetic Diseases Association at the Precision Medicine Exhibition and Summit held in May in Dubai this year.

Global data and insights firm Netscribes projects the Middle East and Africa precision medicine market to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 9.96 per cent to a revenue worth of $2.51 billion by 2023.

David Stradling, Event Director of the summit said that the application of digital technologies, including AI, big data, and machine learning, is driving precision medicine into the vanguard of new age healthcare which tailors to individual needs, can improve outcomes and patient experiences.

Personalised solutions are gaining traction in genomics and targeted cancer therapies, regenerative medicine, and now include a wide range of diagnostics and treatments for both rare and common diseases.

“GCC healthcare providers have already moved into the PM field, which is expected to grow by 11 per cent annually to 2026 to be worth US$142 billion globally with Dubai’s Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU) and the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Saudi Arabia having established biomedical and genomics research centres and others expected to follow,” he said.

The UAE is among few countries in the MENA region which is adopting modern and innovative healthcare approaches to combat such issues. The Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH) recently launched the first Personalised Precision Medicine Programme for oncology in the region.

On November 8, Illumina, a firm specialising DNA sequencing and array-based technologies launched its new, state-of-the-art solutions centre in Dubai. “With the growing demand for genomic testing in healthcare systems, the Illumina Solutions Centere will help deliver accurate and actionable reports to clinicians and their patients,” said Susan Tousi, chief commercial officer of Illumina.

Asma Ali Zain is an independent journalist and a regular contributor at Omnia Health.

<<Back to Laboratory

Today, 14 November, is World Diabetes Day. Around the world, people are working to raise awareness of the disease and encourage changes in society and among individuals to reduce its incidence – and hopefully develop a long-awaited reliable treatment.

There are two types of diabetes: Type 1, which is an autoimmune disease treated with daily doses of insulin for the rest of a patient’s life, and Type 2, which is typically caused by a diet too high in fat and sugar and often associated with obesity.

With an annual turnover of $46 billion globally, treating diabetes is a major industry. And as rates grow – particularly in developing nations as incomes increase and diets change – diabetes-related healthcare expenditure is expected to rise to $802 billion globally in 2030.

And yet, Type 1 diabetes lacks a reliable treatment, with costly daily insulin injections still the typical solution. In many countries, the cost of procuring such amounts of insulin deprives millions of treatment, condemning them to serious illness, disability, or even death.

High rate of diabetes in GCC

Diabetes affects 430 million people worldwide, and over the last few decades, the incidence of the disease has risen dramatically in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) states.

According to the International Diabetes Federation, the share of people aged 20-79 who have diabetes has remained relatively static across the GCC states over the last ten years: 18.7% in Saudi Arabia, 16.4% in the United Arab Emirates, and 19.5% in Qatar. In comparison, just 10.7% of the United States population lives with diabetes.

The reasons for such a high rate of diabetes in the Gulf states are much debated, but rapid urbanisation, rising obesity rates, and increasingly poor diets and sedentary lifestyles are thought to be to blame.

Diets in the GCC states have changed dramatically over the past several decades, characterised by an increase in the consumption of junk food. A recent study revealed just 38% of the population of the Gulf states consume fresh vegetables, and only 40% eat fresh fruits.

Combined with the rise in sedentary, office-based professions, this points to a severe health crisis. Indeed, obesity rates – which are correlated strongly with diabetes rates – are among the highest in the world in the Gulf region, at 35%, 29.9%, and 33.9% in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, respectively.

To solve this, GCC governments need to improve the affordability of and access to insulin and other treatments and institute public health campaigns to improve diets and promote exercise.

The GCC states have witnessed dramatic societal changes in just a few decades. With this comes enormous opportunities and considerable improvements to the quality of life. But it also brings with it challenges, and diabetes is among the largest. This World Diabetes Day, the GCC governments should continue their efforts to promote and deliver effective remedies.

In the last few months, we witnessed introductions to many new types of medical equipment and insights into new technologies that soon will be welcomed in the medical industry.

As regional sales director for Hisense Middle East for the medical equipment business, I sensed a certain curiosity among my peers regarding our presence. The brand may be one of the most innovative electronics companies in the world, but with our reputation built largely on manufacturing award-winning televisions and white goods, I fielded a variety of questions about our medical equipment and how it can benefit the global medical industry.

As I explained to inquisitive industry experts, our experience in televisions means we are perfectly suited to the medical market. We recently unveiled our new 55-inch endoscopic monitor known as HME8C55U and it does not take a neurosurgeon to understand why a company with more than 50 years of experience in visual technology and home appliances can make a comfortable pivot into ultrasound displays. 

The HME8C55U is a professional 4K ultra-high-definition endoscopic surgery monitor that supports a display resolution of up to eight million pixels. It features a 200,000:1 contrast ratio and a peak brightness level of 2,000 nits, which ensures vivid clarity of tissue detail in narrow cavities.

By augmenting image clarity and connectivity, we can ensure surgeons are better equipped to perform their tasks with confidence, which in turn contributes towards improved patient outcomes. By incorporating a backlight sensor, we ensure backlight output stability and brightness over the lifetime of the product. We are also one of the few brands to provide a single 12G SDI connection on our surgical monitors for 4K image viewing, thereby eliminating the need for three cables and making operating theatres cleaner and less cluttered. For smaller operating rooms there is also the option of 32” and 27” screen sizes.

Still relatively new to the market, we are raising not only eyebrows but also the general level of performance within the healthcare industry. We are investing in considerable research and development resources to bring to market strong value propositions that provide 4K image views of complicated surgeries in operation theatres. The irony of an entire surgical team undertaking meticulous work in a hospital and huddled around a 24-inch or 26-inch monitor, while consumers watch fantasy films and football matches on 86-inch high-resolution displays in their own homes is not lost on us.

Yet this is starting to change. Having a larger screen in the surgery suite improves surgical precision and helps in the easy identification of bleeding points, leading to quicker and more focused action to control blood loss. A monitor with 4K resolution in an operating theatre also means surgeons have access to our Real-time Picture Enhancement (RPE), providing frame-by-frame algorithmic enhancement of the image in terms of colour, brightness, contrast, and depth – all of which are the fundamentals of image quality. This ensures the medical team can always view the best possible image of the operating site.

Note that I say ‘team’ and not ‘surgeon’. That is because a larger, enhanced image not only improves visibility, but also ensures the entire operating team can stay abreast of developments in real-time in a wider viewing area without problems. This immediately improves communication and decision-making during surgery, thereby reducing stress and sharing responsibility in the operating room, especially during long and complicated procedures. The result is obvious: more successful surgeries, better patient outcomes, and an improved healthcare system.

In fact, such is the obvious advantages of larger 4K displays in operating theatres that surgery centres and the medical fraternity are pushing for them to become the new standard as soon as possible. If we have helped prompt that discussion and that change then we can be pleased, but we have little intention to stop there.

We are committed to creating game-changing medical technology and, as the HME8C55U proves, already bringing to market ground-breaking products that significantly improve the healthcare industry.

Porus Sheriar is the Regional Sales Director – Hisense Medical Systems, MENA