Now in its 50th edition, Arab Health 2025 was held at the Dubai World Trade Centre until January 30, Thursday, bringing together over 3,800 exhibitors from around the world. The event showcased advancements in the industry, fostered healthcare collaborations, and introduced new innovations, uniting professionals from the medical sector under one roof.
Dr. Naghma Nawaz, Diagnostic Radiology, Imaging Institute at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi explained how AI will help detect breast cancer in patients: “So the idea is that it’s a deep learning algorithm running contrary to the basic one, which was computer-aided detected – where a model was made and it was just looking for those features. Now, in deep learning what AI is doing is that it’s picking up findings, but at the same time, it’s teaching itself that this was benign, and this was not true.”
She added, “So it’s constantly teaching itself. The idea is that it’s getting better and picking the most subtle changes on a mammogram, and it will become as good, if not better, than the human eye and picking up the findings.”
If AI can identify a finding that indicates a potential cancer risk, the system will also provide a probability assessment, estimating the likelihood of it being cancer in percentage terms.
“And then there is where the radiologist comes in, gets to assess the patient, do an ultrasound if required, and a biopsy. But at least it was able to pick up that tiny little finding which was picked up immediately on the spot. If you’re sitting and screening mammograms and you have hundreds of cases on your reading list, AI will triage and stratify that these are the mammograms, that it thinks have findings, and these are the ones that it thinks are benign,” elaborated Dr. Naghma.
The approach prioritizes flagged cases first, ensuring timely assessment while minimizing patient wait times. Benign or normal cases are addressed afterward, enhancing system efficiency and reducing unnecessary patient stress. Breast cancer in women can be detected as early as age 14.
Meanwhile, The Sharjah Research, Technology, and Innovation Park (SRTI Park) reinforced its commitment to healthcare innovation at Arab Health 2025. Led by CEO Hussain Al Mahmoudi, the delegation engaged with investors and industry leaders while highlighting collaborations like the partnership with Doctory—a health-tech company behind a smart medical chair and advanced examination device. Al Mahmoudi emphasized SRTI Park’s role in fostering innovation through SOILab, which contributed to the design and 3D printing of these medical solutions, supporting a dynamic ecosystem for cutting-edge healthcare advancements.
Many experts also discussed the concept of remote monitoring and how AI will enhance early detection. However, they emphasized that despite technological advancements, the human touch in medicine will always remain essential.
Dr. Sawsan Abdel-Razig, Chief Academic Officer at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, also shared insights on how AI can help diagnose things earlier: “There’s sort of the use of AI and remote wearables that allow us to diagnose things in real-time. What I mean by that is it allows us to diagnose things that are going off the right track before the final sort of manifestation of disease happens. So for example, let’s say you have a cardiac problem where your heart rate tends to go too high, we start you on a medication.”
She added, “Now, the way we currently treat or manage that is to keep you on that medication and hope it keeps it stable and through different intervals, clinic visits, etc, we check your heart rate, and it’s a one-time sort of check, whereas with a wearable, we would be checking throughout while you’re home, and would be able to see just as it starts to blip up, we can make changes to your dosing, rather than waiting to do that after we’ve already seen a high heart rate. So that would be an example of how AI or wearables can help us in diagnosing things earlier.”
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai, also toured Arab Health 2025; and emphasized the significance of building strong partnerships and fostering mutual collaboration to create a better future for humanity, highlighting that a unified vision and collective effort are essential for driving meaningful change that benefits future generations.
During panel discussions, Dr. Asma Ibrahim Al Mannaei, Executive Director of Health Life Sciences, Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, spoke at length about how the approach to finding quicker solutions to situations scaled after the COVID-19 pandemic.
American Hospital Dubai also showcased the future of healthcare innovation and patient care at its advanced experiential platform, “Advancing Excellence.” The hospital’s interactive platform offered attendees an experience, demonstrating how it integrates latest technology with world-class medical services to set new benchmarks in patient care, innovation, and accessibility.
(Some inputs from WAM)
