Abu Dhabi Health Summit Focuses on Prediction, Prevention for Longer Healthy Lives

Longevity-first healthcare takes spotlight at Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit

Policymakers and health industry leaders are gathering at the Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit to examine how prediction and prevention can help people live longer, healthier lives.

The discussions will focus on issues affecting ageing populations worldwide, with particular attention on how health systems can help ensure that longer lives are also lived in good health.

Prediction and prevention at the centre

The summit is exploring innovative breakthroughs and policies that place prediction and prevention at the centre of healthcare.

The stated aim is to shape a future in which innovation and collaboration come together “to enable longer, healthier lives for all”.

Ageing populations have become a common concern across contemporary societies, with the World Health Organization estimating that more than 2 billion people worldwide will be aged over 60 by 2050.

That projection has increased attention on how people should be cared for as they age.

Dr Asma Al Mannaei, executive director of the health life science sector at the Department of Health: Abu Dhabi, says it also points to the need to design entire health systems around keeping people in as much good health as possible during their advancing years.

“Every health system faces the same question: will those added years be healthy years? Our answer is to invest now in prediction and prevention,” Al Mannaei says.

The United Arab Emirates has positioned itself as a global leader in transformative healthcare policy, and Al Mannaei views the summit as an opportunity to share how those policies are being implemented in real time.

A precision medicine approach

“Precision medicine is at the heart of it,” Al Mannaei explains.

She says better health depends on “understanding each person’s risk through their genome, their biomarkers and their daily life, then acting early.”

The approach is built around identifying risks before they develop into symptoms and using that understanding to guide early action.

“Our model has four steps: we sense, we predict, we prevent and we personalise,” Al Mannaei says.

She explains that the system senses through genomics, screening and data.

It then predicts risk years before symptoms appear and seeks to prevent illness through early targeted intervention.

The Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit is the flagship event of the Future Health platform, a year-round initiative of the UAE capital focused on global collaboration and transformative health innovation.

Genome programme provides a foundation

One of Abu Dhabi’s highlighted initiatives is the Emirati Genome Programme, which was launched across the UAE in 2019 with the target of mapping the genetic make-up of all Emiratis.

More than 800,000 records have been collected to date.

Al Mannaei says the programme is based on the idea that understanding an individual’s genetic make-up can establish a “foundation for precision prevention”.

The data has already revealed genetic factors associated with inherited vision loss within the Emirati population.

The programme found around 100 such genetic factors.

The finding illustrates how genomic information can identify risks within a population and support a more targeted approach to prevention.

The Emirati Genome Programme is presented as part of a wider effort to connect policy, data, research, care delivery, technology and investment around a single healthcare vision.

Malaffi links healthcare records

Another initiative cited by Al Mannaei is Malaffi, described as the region’s first health information exchange and a strategic initiative of the Department of Health, Abu Dhabi.

Malaffi was launched in 2019 and is operated by Abu Dhabi Health Data Services.

It connects more than 3,000 healthcare facilities and brings together over 4 billion records for more than 14 million patients.

Al Mannaei says the platform gives clinicians secure access to patients’ comprehensive health records.

That access supports continuity of care, patient safety and better-informed clinical decisions, she says.

Together, the genome programme and Malaffi show how Abu Dhabi is applying data and infrastructure to the prediction, prevention and personalisation model outlined at the summit.

Building a longevity-first system

“In Abu Dhabi, policy, regulation, care delivery, research, technology and investment move together around one vision,” Al Mannaei notes.

She says the Emirati Genome Programme was developed with its governance, data, infrastructure and partnerships built at the same time.

According to Al Mannaei, this allowed discovery to move into care and into the economy at speed.

The model reflects the summit’s broader focus on whether health systems can respond to ageing populations by acting before illness becomes apparent.

“I hope Abu Dhabi will be known as the place that proved a longevity-first health system works,” Al Mannaei says.

She describes it as a potential blueprint for health systems that can sense, predict, prevent and personalise care.

The intended outcome, she says, is to help people everywhere live longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives.

The summit’s discussions therefore place longevity alongside healthcare innovation, with prevention and early action presented as the means of making additional years healthier.

Source: South China Morning Post