Abu Dhabi has set for itself the goal of becoming one of the leading healthcare destinations in the world, and its acceleration of digital transformation has been closely watched in the Middle East and Africa, along with the pandemic response of the Emirate.

The 10-year digital transformation strategy led by the Department of Health-Abu Dhabi is based on a patient-first approach, with the goal to provide the insights-driven and value-based care to deliver cutting-edge preventive, pervasive and personalized medicine to the nation.

Having already connected healthcare with the implementation of the health information exchange – Malaffi – the DOH is looking to consolidate healthcare data further, apply AI analytics to get advanced insights for decision-making and create an integrated platform that serves the entire sector, enabling an environment that spurs the development of innovative digital tools.

"As part of the action plan, over the past year, we have witnessed the signing of strategic partnerships between the Department of Health and pharmaceutical and research organizations that aim to generate innovative medications and clinical trials," Malaffi CEO Atif Al Braiki said. "The private start-ups sector has been supported and encouraged with many initiatives and accelerators of ingenuity and creativity."

Al Braiki, who will speak about the digitization of Abu Dhabi's healthcare industry this week at HIMSS22, said they have seen encouraging feedback from the healthcare providers interested in reaping the benefits of digitization to provide better care to their patients and increase the efficiency of their operations.

"The many users' testimonials and different use cases demonstrate that access to the unified clinical data saved duplication of tests and services, increased coordination, reduced error, and improved clinical decision-making," he said.

By the use of predictive AI models on the historical aggregated data, Malaffi can now predict health and cost risk for (cohorts and individual) patients to develop a certain chronic condition, complications, visit to EDs and hospital readmissions.

Al Braiki noted these insights enable the implementation of targeted preventive measures on a population health level and on an individual-patient level that will reduce the risk, improve the overall wellbeing of the population and reduce the cost pressure.

He added that ensuring healthcare providers capture high-quality and standardized data is a basic premise to enabling interoperability and the use of digital technology to transform healthcare. Having access to the aggregated patient data, the Malaffi team identified specific gaps and issues with data quality. Based on the analysis and to enhance data quality, the DOH has issued targeted guidance on coding standards to healthcare providers in Abu Dhabi.

Al Braiki said the universal adoption of these standards, such as SNOMED CT and LOINC, is expected to significantly improve interoperability, increase the clinical value of the data, and improve the accuracy and scope of population health insights.

"Based on a vision that reimagines health, the DOH will continue to build an integrated, more resilient and [outcomes-focused] healthcare system that future-proofs the population in the Emirate," he said.

Al Braiki's HIMSS22 session, "Reimagining Healthcare: Abu Dhabi's Digital Transformation," is scheduled for Tuesday, March 15, from 4:15-5:15 pm in room W207C.