HIMSSCast: DoH Abu Dhabi and AstraZeneca establish new Rare Diseases Centre of Excellence

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The Department of Health Abu Dhabi has been pursuing partnerships to become a life science and global hub for rare diseases, AI and obesity.

A recent Memorandum of Understandings with AstraZeneca aims to tackle rare diseases, which are less rare in the Middle East, according to Dr. Asma Al Mannaei, executive director, Research and Innovation Centre, Department of Health, Abu Dhabi. 

The DoH is working to facilitate and enable the development of lifesaving medications, increase access to those treatments, grow awareness of the impact of genetic disease among the population and improve patient outcomes.  

"We are aiming to be part of the new drug discoveries," Dr. Al Mannaei said.

Another MOU with Eli Lilly and the World Obesity Foundation enables work on prevention and management on obesity, which the World Health Organization defines as a chronic disease.

"Until now no one has cracked the code of how to manage obesity," she said.

An AI Healthcare Academy will offer workforce training in support of the vision to accelerate life sciences in the region. 

"As you know, advancing AI in the sector is very crucial (to) achieving our shift from reactive healthcare delivery to proactive healthcare," she said.

For more, listen to Dr. Al Mannaei's conversation with Susan Morse, executive editor of Healthcare Finance News.

• There are 7,000 rare diseases in existence across the globe with an estimated 5.9% of the world's population affected.
• An estimated 2.8 million people in the Middle East have a rare disease.
• The DoH Abu Dhabi, the regulator of the healthcare sector in the Emirate, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with AstraZeneca during BIO International Convention 2024 to establish a world-class Rare Diseases Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Abu Dhabi.
• AstraZeneca is delivering research and expertise in disease management, while the DoH is working on identifying populations for clinical trials.
• Abu Dhabi, which has 200 nationalities, is a good size for such clinical trial management.
• Obesity is a global health issue, with 75% of the adult population failing to meet activity levels set by the World Health Organization.
• The DoH has the ambition of establishing Abu Dhabi as life science hub.
• There's also an AI collaboration with Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and Core42 to collaborate with the DoH to launch an AI Healthcare Academy, establishing various courses tailored to advancing AI.
• An AI enabled genome program will generate insights around understanding disease.

More about this episode:

How Abu Dhabi's ADQ is creating the UAE's largest healthcare platform

Expanded coverage for weight loss drugs could cost Medicare billions

Employer coverage of GLP-1 weight loss drugs expected to double

Data is the bridge to life sciences for clinical trial optimization and predictive analytics

Advancing technologies, evolving therapeutics

Children's National Hospital partners for expensive gene therapy

The HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum is scheduled to take place September 5-6 in Boston. Learn more and register.

Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org