Welcome

Building a Superior Healthcare System

The United Arab Emirates and the region at large have made tremedous strides of progress in the last three decades in improving health and wellness of the citizens and residents, as evident from the improvement in World Health Organization’s key indicators such as the infant mortality rate and life expectancy.

But we shall not rest on our laurels. As the region is also developing economically in a fast pace, enhancing the quality of life for the citizens is an ongoing quest for the governments and the societies. Hence it is entirely appropriate that the theme of the inaugural summit meeting of the Global Medical Forum for the region focuses on defining the building blocks for designing and ensuring a superior healthcare system.

I welcome to this Forum the regional healthcare champions and leaders as well as international experts participating in these important deliberations that should have a lasting impact on designing a way forward to ensure uncompromising quality and equitable access of superior healthcare for all residents of our region.

I am looking forward to interacting with all the delegates and to the outcomes of this important Abu Dhabi summit meeting.

H.E. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan
Minister of Education, United Arab Emirates
Chancellor, Higher Colleges of Technology

Building Blocks for Excellence in Healthcare

The United Arab Emirates continues in its quest to lead the region in economic competitiveness and entrepreneurial endeavors in order to secure a prosperous future for its citizens.

Health and wellness of all citizens and residents is central to this quest for excellence, for health is indeed the wealth of a nation. While natural resources and trading provide an excellent resource foundation to build strong healthcare institutions, this is only one of the many building blocks to providing a superior healthcare system in the region.

Developing national human resource pool in healthcare professions is of paramount importance both from an economic perspective and also from a strategic view. Another essential building block is develop a culture of basic and applied research in the region to best address the regional healthcare challenges and needs. Another challenge facing the region is to foster an environment conducive to effective technology transfer and capacity building in healthcare equipment, pharmaceutical industry, infrastructure design including hospitals, insurance sector and healthcare informatics. The Centre of Excellence for Research and Training – the entrepreneurial arm of the Higher Colleges of Technology – is committed to help the region in all these aspects.

As the focus of the healthcare agenda for the region shifts from prevention of communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases resulting from lifestyle changes, it is also important that public health education campaign starts early in the elementary school systems and continue through to awareness programs in mass-media.

While we ought to think globally, we must, at the same time, act locally. HCT-CERT is pleased to play its part in facilitating global interactions such as this forum while also helping the local agencies with health related training, research and consulting work as a not-for-profit institution.

I look forward to the open, honest and constructive dialogue among the regional and international experts during the three days of the Abu Dhabi summit.

Welcome to Abu Dhabi and to the UAE.

Dr. Tayeb Kamali
Co-Chairman of the Organizing Committee – GMF Abu Dhabi Summit

Healthcare Agenda: Rational Deliberations - Rational Solutions

Beyond the miraculous science of medicine still lurk today many old-fashioned philosophical and political conundrums; while practitioners of healthcare and politicians wrestle with day-to-day struggles of delivery and policy, medical ethicists and even some social scientists pontificate from on high, most often with almost no experience at the frontline of life-saving medical choices and policy decisions. As with the vanity of the generals of the early days of the First World War, the demagoguery is to be expected as a part of a stagnant debate; but let us not now also believe it to be the real and underlying language of the healthcare debate.

Every nation faces virtually the same challenges in advancing new technologies, innovations and agents through an efficient and rational system of healthcare financing. The issues that these leaders face are more similar than different.

Global Medical Forum is a place to discuss rational solutions to the healthcare debate and it is a provider of unbiased information to the public as a whole on the values and role of medical innovation and technology, the financing of healthcare, and other related issues of public policy.

At the core of the Abu Dhabi summit is the concept of excellence, a concept which must always remain as the watermark of the healthcare agenda. Even in the presence of established systems of patient export and tiered classes of medicine, there should be no goal to create second class healthcare. One of the overriding objectives of the Abu Dhabi summit is to define the concept of excellence in healthcare in the context of the region and challenge the society’s leaders to strive for its achievement.

Prof. Dr. Raphael Levey
Co-Chairman of the Organizing Committee – GMF Abu Dhabi Summit