From building a playlist to using the heart for humanity, for nature, and for you, beating cardiovascular disease (CVD) is something that matters to every beating heart. And this is the message from the World Heart Federation on the occasion of World Heart Day (WHD) that is marked each year on September 29.

With the theme of “Use Heart For Every Heart”, the federation this year is asking the world to use their heart for humanity, for nature, and for professionals themselves.

Locally, the Emirates Cardiac Society (ECS) has launched a public education campaign “For Every Heart” where experts will answer all questions related to heart disease. According to the society, death rates due to heart diseases in the UAE have reached 320 per 100,000 cases, which is double the death rate in other countries.

Dr. Nooshin Bazargani, Consultant Cardiologist at Dubai Hospital and Chair of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at ECS, said that heart failure is the final destination of patients who have cardiovascular risk factors. “This applies to those who don’t control the risk factors or have had cardiac events like heart attacks.”

“It has been estimated that 26 million people live with heart failure globally, of which up to 3.8 million live in the Middle East,” said Dr. Bazargani. She added that it has also been estimated that every one in five people has a chance of heart attack at one stage of their life.

According to her, patients in the UAE show signs of heart disease a decade earlier as compared to other parts of the world because of genetic factors, lifestyle as well as the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension, which is higher in the younger generation.

Some common symptoms of heart failure include difficulty in breathing, fatigue and lack of energy, swellings on the ankles, unspecific chest pain, and in some cases palpitations.

Dr. Anil P Kumar, Specialist Interventional Cardiologist at Aster Clinic in Bur Dubai said: “I would like to take this opportunity to shed light on the importance of a healthy heart, particularly in young individuals. The notion that heart diseases are more prevalent in the elderly population is not completely true as we tend to see a lot of younger populations suffering from heart diseases,” he said.

“There is a high prevalence of hyperlipidaemia, hypertension, impaired glucose metabolism, and substance abuse particularly smoking, all of which leads to cardiovascular diseases,” he added.

How to keep your heart healthy

• Start your day off right. Always have breakfast and keep it as nutritious as possible by eating fresh fruit, lean proteins (eggs, yoghurt, and low-fat dairy), and complex whole grains
• Curb sugar intake. A few, natural and high-quality sweeteners (honey, dark chocolate) are better than refined, processed sweets
• Eat fresh fruits and veggies; eating plenty of fruits and vegetables in a day will fill you up (with fibre) and help curb hunger cravings
• Get active; exercise at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week
• Maintain healthy weight; keep body mass index under control (BMI)
• Quit smoking and stay away from second-hand smoke
• Control your cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugars
• Manage stress and get quality sleep

Heart diseases are a major reason for mortality in many countries. According to WHO around 32 per cent of global deaths in 2019 were due to heart attack or stroke, which constitutes to the major number of preventable causes of death.

As an individual, as a community, and as a country, we should all strive for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, which mainly constitutes lifestyle measures and periodic health checkups.

But how do we aim for primordial, or primary prevention?

We are aware that obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, lack of exercise, stressful lifestyle, and unhealthy diet are common factors contributing to heart diseases. As healthcare practitioners, it our responsibility to identify early signs and symptoms, educate patients and the wider community and urge the high-risk group to opt for regular check-ups.

Related: Cardiology Report: Ultrasound equipment market and new developments in cardiology

Regular health assessments and risk assessments for cardiac disease have proven beneficial for high-risk patients in identifying early symptoms. Moreover, early detection of heart diseases saves lives and reduces the amount of damage that can happen to the heart which eventually improves the lives of people who have suffered from a heart attack.

Fortunately, in the post-Covid era, the use of technology in healthcare is evolving and supporting those who are time-poor. The advanced smartwatches and wearable devices that people wear every day – at home, at gym, and in the office — can detect abnormalities in heart rate, which could be an early sign of heart disease. The same data can be shared with the physician over teleconsultation, and a detailed assessment could be done. 

Related: Early detection can curb mortality rates for heart disease patients

The intelligent device technology penetrates healthcare, where the monitoring device remotely collects information regarding heart rate, sleep pattern, blood sugars, and blood pressure. This ensures an accurate assessment of heart disease risk factors and enables the prevention of heart diseases. 

One should be cautious however about the ideal utilisations for these devices and the risks associated with them. There is always a possibility that the data might be inaccurate, or the patient is not using the device correctly. The other concern associated with these devices relates to the medico-legal implications. Device providers should have the capabilities to handle the abnormal signal and have a plan of action to guide individuals on how to act once an alarm goes off.

Moreover, as the region moves towards technology-based healthcare — including in-home and virtual consultations, that do not require patients to physically visit a clinic — we are optimistic about leveraging technology to improve patient outcomes, and ultimately, the quality of people’s lives.

 

Dr. Radha Shankar is the Specialist Internal Medicine at Housecall.

GCC governments’ spending on healthcare is on the astronomical rise. From a regionwide US$2.4 billion in 2016, it rose to more than US$30 billion in 2021 and is projected to surpass US$104 billion this year, according to a report from the UAE Ministry of Economy. Much of this surge can be attributed to the acceleration of digital transformation that occurred during the COVID-19 crisis. And there are clear signals that technology investment will continue to be a huge part of healthcare investment in the coming years. One estimate puts the share of artificial intelligence (AI) alone, in GCC hospital spending, at 30 per cent over the following decade.

AI has a range of applications in healthcare, none of which involve robot doctors or android nurses. Connected medical devices, wearables, automation of administration, and cognitive-machine support in point-of-care decision systems are just a few examples. But AI, despite its many uses in healthcare, still faces barriers to widespread adoption. Here are three of them:

Trust

Related: Preparing a new generation of physicians through integrated training

While this is applicable to AI adoption across industries, it is easy to see how it applies even more so in health services. This concern is not without foundation. Machine-learning models are only as good as the data on which they are trained. Warped data leads to warped models and undesirable outcomes. In healthcare, this can not only lead to physical harm but to inequities in care for underrepresented or underserved groups.

This is where employee training is critical. Any organisation that adopts AI at scale must undergo a culture change where stakeholders ensure that designers, implementers, testers, and users of solutions are aware of all the potential missteps. Trust can also be enhanced through transparency, where an AI system exposes its logic chain for all to see. Many of today’s AI toolboxes come with “explainability” features as well as anti-bias measures, empowering well-trained users to build trust in the solution and allow it to add value.

Use case selection

Related: Artificial Intelligence will give healthcare workers more chance to show care and empathy

Deciding where to begin with AI, especially when focused on trust, can be tricky. The temptation will be to stick with guaranteed quick wins, but that may not be appropriate for all organisations. An ambitious project that is well designed and urgently needed can be just as worthy of consideration. Projects can yield adequate fruit, as long as decision-makers and project managers balance the standard metrics of AI use cases with the KPIs unique to value-based care (where ROI is notoriously difficult to pin down).

Some obvious healthcare use cases include staffing and resource planning, AI-assisted coding in medical claims billing, patient risk and care delivery models, and medical-imaging classification to improve clinical decision support systems. The major focuses must be process efficiency, productivity, risk management, value-based care, and decision support.

The main pointers to keep in mind are the “who”, “how”, “why”, “what”, “where”, and “when” questions. Who will benefit? How will the project add value and how can it be measured? Why AI? What are the upsides of success and the consequences of failure? Where is the data; and does it even exist? And when can we expect to see a prototype, a live system, and tangible results?

Data availability and confidentiality

The healthcare industry is not short on data, but much of it is unstructured, which presents yet more challenges. And the global device explosion guarantees more and more health-related data will be on hand. This data needs to be stored and shaped into useable formats. Then, when AI algorithms are finally let loose on it, regulatory constraints may reduce its quality and throw up yet more barriers to the delivery of actionable insights. Meanwhile, cybersecurity professionals will need to come up with ways to protect the data and the systems that use it.

Privacy standards like GDPR and UAE Federal Law No 2 of 2019 that governs the gathering and use of health data restricts the individualisation of data. And using anonymised data can give incomplete or inaccurate results. However, with the right AI platform, it can be possible to make compliance easier through the visibility of data lineage, while adding restrictions on use in real-time along with anonymization and pseudonymisation where appropriate.

However, even in the ideal case where plenty of data is available, success is not a guarantee. Computer vision, for example, requires medical imaging data that is adequately labelled, but this labeling can be resource-intensive, and prohibitively costly. This would normally rule out the use of supervised learning, which is a more direct path to value. But fortunately, some modern AI platforms include collaborative managed labelling systems that allow teams to efficiently generate mass quantities of high-quality, labelled data.

Governance to the rescue

Since most of the barriers to entry are people-based or involve processes, governance can help to overcome them. And this will allow AI to take its place in the technology suite of healthcare organisations across the region. It should be noted that AI governance is broader than data governance, enforcing standardised rules, processes, and requirements that shape design, development, and deployment. Trust is a natural byproduct of good governance, as is privacy and the shrewd selection of use cases.

Perhaps the most widely known thing about AI today is that organisations cannot hope to blindly deploy it as catchall for operational gaps. Most decision-makers who evaluate AI are aware that their organisation must change culture to reap benefits. But make no mistake — the benefits are there. And in a region where healthcare growth is approaching stratospheric proportions, AI can be a vital cog in the machinery of progress.

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Maged Mahmoud is the Public Sector Sales Lead at Dataiku.

[YONGIN, South Korea] GC Labs, the leading clinical laboratory from South Korea, has recently obtained certification of standardization programs for vitamin D and hormones (testosterone) organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

CDC operates international standardization programs aimed at manufacturers and laboratories to improve the detection and diagnosis of disease by ensuring that laboratory tests are accurate and reliable. The goal of the program is to contribute to improving the health of mankind by ensuring correct diagnoses and treatment of patients and reducing confusion and re-examination due to inaccurate data.

Related: GC Labs strengthens global presence at IFCC WorldLab 2022 with four new partnerships

The program has a high level of difficulty for assessment procedures, where participants measure the true value of samples in multiple concentrations for a year and report the results, which would be assessed against the strict criterion. To be certified, participants should meet each performance criterion of ± 6.4 percent mean bias when compared to the true value provided by CDC for testosterone and of ± 5.0 percent mean bias with overall imprecision under 10 percent when compared to the true value provided by CDC for vitamin D during four consecutive quarters.

Related: GC Labs sets sights on global expansion

GC Labs becomes the first Korean clinical laboratory to participate in Vitamin D Standardization Certification Program (VDSCP) and the Hormone Standardization Program (HoSt) from the third quarter of 2021, and to be finally certified on July 14, 2022. In particular, the individual samples passing rate of VDSCP and HoSt was 68 percent and 88 percent respectively, which are much higher than those of the global top-tier manufacturers and laboratories.

“Special chemistry department in GC Labs is researching and developing various hormones and vitamin D measurements based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to provide more accurate and precise test results than conventional immunological methods,” said Dr. Eun Hee Lee, M.D., Ph.D., President of GC Labs.

“The acquisition of global standardization certification proves that GC Lab’s test accuracy and reliability are very high and leads to strengthen its global competitiveness. Through continuous study, GC Labs will be reborn as a leading diagnostic laboratory contributing to the improvement of human health and welfare by expanding the clinical application of tandem mass spectrometry methods and producing accurate test results,” she said.

 

About GC Labs

GC Labs is South Korea’s leading clinical laboratory that also specializes in infectious diseases and serves as part of the Global Diagnostics Network. GC Labs has enabled patients to receive an accurate diagnosis and the right treatment with unrivalled quality of routine and specialized clinical tests. Around 800 employees at GC Labs offer more than 5,000 tests and test combinations, ranging from routine tests to highly esoteric molecular and genetic assays.

With more than 40 years of accumulated know-how, GC Labs values the principles of providing the best treatment for patients even in unpredictable medical environments through passionate and ceaseless efforts. Not only domestically, but also GC Labs has managed to expand overseas by entering a Lab Service Agreement with 20 institutions across 15 countries worldwide. GC Labs is qualified with world-class medical standards of medical manpower, level and infrastructure.

For further information, please visit our official website www.gclabs.co.kr/eng.

The day-to-day role of a pharmacist has not only expanded to become impressive, but it is now also vital for healthcare businesses and the medical fraternity.

From handling prescription delivery services to educating patients virtually to performing Covid-19 testing and also preparing and ultimately administering the vaccine, the new capabilities will help grow and diversify the field of pharmacy for years to come.

This year World Pharmacists Day, which is observed on September 25, is themed “Pharmacy united in action for a healthier world” to reflect the profession’s positive impact on health around the world.

Related: Pharmaceutical manufacturers benefit from (re)investing in machine vision systems

“Covid has shown us that healthcare is a ‘team sport’, we must set aside professional hierarchies and function together to serve our patients,” according to Dr. Nadia Rashed, Academic and Healthcare Consultant who works as an Assistant Professor at Sharjah University in the Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapeutics Department.

“Pharmacists have established themselves as core members of the patient care team and during Covid they have embraced their role as frontline workers. Pharmacists have deep clinical knowledge and are highly accessible within the community across inpatient, outpatient and emergency settings in hospitals. This uniquely positions the pharmacist to educate communities and to increase patient access to medication and care,” she said.

Related: Driving digital transformation in the pharma industry

According to Dr. Rashed, in the future, the role of the pharmacist is increasing significantly and more patients will be relying on pharmacists to learn about their health.

A Saudi survey found that 41 per cent of Saudi consumers prefer to consult with pharmacists on prescription medication, however, 48 per cent of consumers want pharmacists to increase counselling about their medications. Of the latter, consumer counselling constitutes 62.2 per cent (USA), 25 per cent (UK), and over 50 per cent (Canada) of the cases.

Another recent survey done in Saudi Arabia shows that the current positive perception and attitude toward community pharmacists among the public creates an opportunity for pharmacists to assume expanded roles as healthcare providers.

“Empowered pharmacists have a huge role such as raising health and well-being awareness, helping patients select the right over-the-counter products, referring them to the right specialities, providing health education on how to correctly use medicine and potential drug interactions,” she said.

Mohamed Magoury, Director of Pharmacy Services at Fakeeh University Hospital, Dubai Silicon Oasis, said: “Covid-19 has necessitated alterations to the delivery of healthcare services. This has accelerated changes in the traditional positioning criteria of pharmacists as businesspeople into more patient-centred healthcare professionals.”
 

He said that pharmacist-provided services and clinical interventions have been shown to reduce the risk of potential adverse drug events and improve patient outcomes.

“These pharmacist activities can be cost-effective or have a good cost: benefit ratio. Now, with the healthcare systems shifting from a volume-based reimbursement structure to a value-based reimbursement structure, pharmacists' unsung role will become increasingly apparent. With their expertise in assessing the whole patient picture; pharmacists can coordinate care between prescribers and affect drug therapy’s clinical and economic effects in addition to emerging new technologies, in which pharmacists help bridge the gap between clinical information and information technology,” he said.

Magoury also said that most people trust pharmacists to play a great role in care delivery. “With increased demand of doctors and nurses, and as complex new therapies and digital health care technology solutions are developed, the role of the pharmacist will continue to evolve,” he explained.

The UAE Government and ministry of health has also recognised these needs with the release of the Unified Healthcare Professionals Qualification Requirements (PQR).

“This has introduced more specialised role for pharmacists such as Critical Care, Infectious Diseases and Clinical Pharmacology,” he added.

GCC governments have invested significantly in healthcare infrastructure in the past couple of decades. Evidently, healthcare cities and luxurious health complexes are mushrooming, raising the quality of medical services, and aspiring to establish the gulf region as a medical hub.

With a world leading infrastructure, the healthcare sector is ready for the future that will come with a new set of foreseen and unforeseen challenges, including a growing population and density, growing life expectancy, share of population over 65, changing lifestyle, and more.

Related: Report: Evolution of Healthcare - Accelerating Medical Innovation

Conversely, the upcoming trends in health-tech services illustrate a promising perspective, empowering patients to play an active role in health management at every stage of the treatment process. Meanwhile, technology advancements will have a-far-reaching impact that enables prevention, diagnostics, treatment, rehabilitation and care.

Transforming Systems

The changing demographics and epidemiological trends are the main factors contributing to the increasing healthcare demand in the gulf countries. However, transformation programs across larger economies, such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are driving a fundamental change that aims to leapfrog the healthcare industry from an emerging market status to a market of opportunity and transformation.

Shifting Service Delivery

The expanding and ageing population, high prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), rising cost of treatment and increasing penetration of health insurance are contributing to the higher costs in the industry. Navigating through these challenges requires a deeper look into personalised healthcare, developing a patient's "digital profile”. Several technologies are pushing the boundaries of traditional medicine and enabling the transition to personalised medicine and more customised treatments, including targeted and gene medicine, bionics and robotics technology, tissue engineering and 3D printing. Overall, the wave of innovation is expected to offer more personalised services and treatment options especially coupled with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and massive data. This will usher the era of consumer-driven digital health that has been much talked about in the last decade.

We have recently conducted extensive research across 25 cities and identified trends that are shaping the future of healthcare. With digital and technology acting as fundamental shaping forces, five key trends stand out:

1. Patient empowerment

Patients will take an increasingly active role in the patient journey, leveraging access to their own health records and personal health analytics, home testing kits, personal electronic monitoring devices, etc. to shape their health and become a major component in the decision-making process.

2. Prevention

Health systems will benefit from predictive diagnosis of diseases, supported by technologies such as AI-enabled risk profiling, epidemiological understanding of different districts and cities, and data analytics for targeted health screenings. This will be the foundation of predictive-preventive systems. 

3. Personalised treatment

New technologies (e.g., tissue engineering and 3D printers) will enable personalised and more accurate treatment allowing the arrival of bespoke medicine; health systems will build and leverage a patient’s 'digital profile' to enable targeted treatment for individuals as well as populations with similar profiles.

4. Integrated delivery models

Significant shifts are underway, from in-patient to out-patient care, and the emergence of alternative patient friendly formats and seamless virtual health delivery networks, to home care and malls care, as well as other formats.

5. Healthcare Professional 4.0

Machine enabled diagnosis will facilitate a symbiosis between health professionals and AI, where digital image diagnostics, virtual reality, digital twins, and routine surgery will deliver greater value and better health results.  4.0 health professionals will require increased digital, cognitive and behavioral skills.

Rapid health technological advancements in the GCC result from the region’s agility to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic with an expedited rollout of technology-enabled solutions. Healthcare has witnessed a more prominent and disruptive change with a massive shift towards prevention rather than cure through Health-Tech solutions that are more data-driven and are creating efficiencies in operations, costs, and delivery of care. Moving forward, decision-makers may leverage these solutions at-scale by envisaging public-private partnerships with HealthTech start-ups, consequently driving growth across the servicing chain in the health sector.

By Jad Bitar, Managing Director and Senior Partner, Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

The UAE has always been praised for its blood transfusion safety services, and now, the recent introduction of apheresis is further revolutionising blood transfusion medicine, placing the country on the global map of healthcare.

Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC), a joint-venture partnership between Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) and Mayo Clinic, recently established an ssApheresis Unit as part of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. The brand-new unit, which is the only one of its kind in the UAE, will be part of transfusion medicine services.

Related: The impact of implementing Lean and Six Sigma improvement models in Transfusion Services

Transfusion medicine is a branch of medicine that involves laboratory testing for blood components, clinical transfusion practices, patient blood management, and apheresis. The Apheresis Unit will provide support for a wide range of specialties, including hematology and oncology, nephrology, neurology, dermatology and the bone marrow transplant programme.

Dr. Hiba AlHumaidan, consultant clinical pathologist and the head of Transfusion Medicine Services and the Apheresis Unit at SSMC, said: “Our new apheresis unit has already been a huge game changer for us with the state-of-the-art technology providing an added support to some of our key specialties like hematology and oncology.”

Related: The role of the Transfusion Practitioner in Haemovigilance

“The potential of the transfusion medicine service is incredibly exciting, we are able to support the management of a wide range of conditions and with plans to grow further, we can provide new technologies and procedures to help more people in the UAE who may be eligible for such treatments,” she added.

Among the first successful cases treated through transfusion medicine was that of 64-year-old Emirati Mohamed Al-Shehhi who was diagnosed with a very rare lymphoma of the skin (cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, also known as Sezary syndrome) in the middle of 2019.

For eight months, Al-Shehhi received various treatments in the UAE without any improvement and was recommended extracorporeal photopheresis therapy (ECP), a non-surgical apheresis procedure where the white blood cells are separated, treated with specific medication, then exposed to UVA light during a visit to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA. While Al-Shehhi experienced a significant improvement with this therapy at Mayo Clinic, the treatment was not available in the UAE at the time.

“Being able to access this treatment here, in my home country, has made a huge difference for me and means I no longer have to travel abroad to seek treatment for long periods of time,” according to Al-Shehhi.

Dr. Mustaqeem Siddiqui, Vice Chair and Practice Chair and Consultant in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at SSMC, explained: “As a pioneer in complex, human-centered care, we are extremely happy to bring this technology and innovative treatment to benefit all people of the UAE. This is truly transforming the delivery of care in the region and further placing Abu Dhabi on the global map of healthcare.”

Dr. Nikita Singh, Specialist Internal Medicine at Aster Clinic, Business Bay, said that the UAE was declared the capital of hemovigilance globally in 2017. Hemovigilance is the procedure of reporting undesirable effects of transfusion to ensure the safety and efficacy of blood transfusion. “Blood transfusion as such can be a double-edged sword in the sense that while transfusion can have unwanted and detrimental side effects, it can prove to be life-saving if the right resources are available as they are in UAE,” she said.

She added: “We have now taken a giant leap in transfusion medicine with the recent introduction of apheresis which has revolutionised transfusion medicine. As a doctor, I am extremely delighted to see this innovative technology in the UAE. This is massive progress in the field of constantly evolving medicine.”

According to Dr. AlHumaidan successful improvement of symptoms in almost all apheresis cases are noticed since it is a supportive treatment. “Apheresis is a supportive treatment to a bigger treatment plan for patients and hence, it’s difficult to state the success rate as there are indications that is a very successful category 1 and then there is a category 3. But generally speaking, it is successful when it is used according to the guidelines.”

Apheresis is a medical procedure that supports the management of more than 80 different conditions and diseases. This is done by directing the blood in the patient’s veins through tubing to a machine that separates the blood into its components. The diseased component is either removed or replaced, while the remainder of the blood components are reinfused back into the patient.

The entire process can take between two to four hours.

QUICK FACTS by SSMC Since the opening of the Apheresis Unit in June 2021, 425 procedures have been performed The number of procedures increased from three per month to the current 55-60 per month. Each patient may need anything between one procedure to >20 depending on the condition and the protocol Of these procedures, 80 photopheresis procedures were done (since it launched in March/April 2022) for eight patients who are all enrolled in a specific programme with a specific protocol that varies from one person to another

COVID-19 presented multiple challenges in recent times and placed an unprecedented burden on frontline workers, especially nurses. Not only did the healthcare landscape witness a surge in cases, leaving hospitals full to the brim, but it also witnessed an intense burnout among nurses who worked multiple shifts. This caused a great resignation leaving managers with a significant shortage of staff.  

Addressing the gravity of the situation, Omnia Health hosted a virtual webinar titled, ‘Nursing During Late Covid: Challenges and Opportunities’ recently, featuring experts Sofia Aleabova, Nurse Manager at GluCare Health, and Mohamad Fakih, Chief Nursing Officer at Fakeeh University Hospital. The session focused on present-day obstacles faced by the nursing industry, notably in the context of the late pandemic era, and proposed solutions. 

Related: Nursing during late Covid: challenges and opportunities

The session revealed how the healthcare industry could address the massive shortage of nursing staff and the role of tech and innovation to aid efficiency. Experts also highlighted the burden of gender divide, and while sharing change-driven solutions to assist mental health and keep ‘burnout’ at bay. 

Discussions also explored support systems such as the need to establish forums for nursing professionals and uncovering the truth behind low recruitment and wages. 

Related: Nursing education in the UAE opens career pathways for young students

Excerpts from Omnia Health’s webinar: 

Is there a forum where nurses from all over can converge here in the UAE? 

Mohamad: The Emirates Nursing Association (ENA) has been actively engaging nurses from the UAE with various nursing initiatives. Last year, they invited the founders of the “Daisy Award” for a conference in Abu Dhabi, where nurses from UAE and the rest of the world attended, while in 2018, they hosted a regional conference in the UAE featuring the International Council of Nurses (ICN). I strongly believe and encourage nurses and nurse leaders through the ENA to introduce more interactive sessions, especially with hospitals in the UAE through their Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs).  

At Fakeeh University Hospital, we took an initiative in 2021 and 2022 to engage with all CNOs in the UAE and published a white paper with recommendations shared by them. 

Sofia: Nurses in the region have found online communities on Facebook and LinkedIn, such as ‘Nurses in Dubai’, where we bring up various points of discussion. These groups are rich with helpful information and experiences, and when combined, they create a network of support for new and existing nursing professionals in the UAE.  

Mohamad Fakih, Chief Nursing Officer at Fakeeh University Hospital

 

Please tell us about the post-pandemic state of nursing recruitment. Has nursing recruitment diminished, including salaries? 

Sofia: I personally do not believe that nursing recruitment has diminished. In fact there is a huge need for professional nurses with high qualifications. Salaries, however, are a different issue. One's salary is based on many variables such as years of experience, specialisation, education level (diploma vs bachelors vs masters vs PHD), and the amount of research and publications. All these factors result in a certain level of salary.  

The other reason for low salaries for nurses especially in clinics is the new recruits themselves. Young and new nurses coming to the UAE for the first time accept and agree to a much lower salary than nurses who have been living and working in the UAE for some time. As a result, clinics tend to lower the nurses’ salaries, as they agree to work for a lower financial benefit and this reflects negatively on the entire industry. There are many aspects that nursing departments need to work on, not only in the UAE but globally.  

My advice to nurses would be: know your worth, appreciate yourself, your knowledge, and your skills. Do proper and thorough research of the field and salary ranges before accepting any job offers in any part of the world.  

Sofia Aleabova, Nurse Manager at GluCare Health

Mohammad: I feel that nursing retention is a challenge that most hospitals face all over the world. For UAE-based nurses, western countries are attractive because of the benefits they provide. For example, a post-pandemic U.S., Europe, Australia, and New Zealand are onboarding nurses from all over the world and facilitating them into their country’s programmes and healthcare systems.  
The UAE has also been proactive in this case. The government now grants the Golden Visa to nurses, which is considered a major retention activity at a country level. However, organisations still play a bigger role in retaining nurses. They need to implement competitive salary scales, staff development activities, and implement career ladders. 

CAR T-cell therapy products will soon be available in Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Brazil, following the launch of Gilead and Kite Oncology’s latest operations.

Commenting on the expansion into KSA, Eslam Khedr, Regional Business Unit Director for Cell Therapy and Oncology, Gilead and Kite Middle East said: “Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 is a key reason Kite selected Saudi Arabia as the location of its first Middle East operation. We are establishing a fully functional oncology/cell therapy business unit in line with international best-in-class protocols with the aim of giving those with cancer the chance to be treated and to offer healthcare of an international standard.”

Eslam Khedr, Regional Business Unit Director for Cell Therapy and Oncology

Dedicated Gilead and Kite teams will work to qualify leading hospitals to administer CAR T-cell therapy in each of the new countries after local regulatory approvals. Plans are also in place to increase its workforce in these countries this year.

To date, Kite is the only company dedicated exclusively to the research, development, and manufacturing of cell therapy on a global scale. All its functions dedicated to this focus area are vertically integrated under one leadership team for efficient delivery of the highly specialised and complex end-to-end processes needed to support CAR T-cell therapy.