The incoming tide of climate change, lifestyle practices, artificial intelligence is shifting human health priorities in different directions. The UAE faces a crisis hiding in plain sight warranting interventions that can plug the growing disease burden which technology alone can’t solve. The nation has built a healthcare system surrounded with advanced specialist care, world class hospitals, rapid emergency response systems and also one of the most ambitious digital health agendas.However, as per records of the International Diabetes Federation, about 20.7% of UAE adults today are diabetic and out of which 64% don’t even know it. Making matters more challenging is a third of pregnancies are affected by gestational diabetes, seeding a generational build up, besides feeding into cardiovascular diseases. This calls for a new health policy for the UAE centered around preventive medicine which can change not just the statistics, but also put ownership of health into the hands of the Emirati people. A new preventive health policy framework is necessary because hospitals can no longer solve this exponential burden thriving at a community level, and must be driven by behaviour change, regulations, incentives and data through the environment in which people live and thrive today.
Translating settled science into systems the UAE way
With growing cardiovascular and diabetes burden, the UAE government will now ought to mobilize a movement for the whole community. Investing in preventive medicine as a national policy for the UAE would mean working with food companies to cut salt, influencing mosques, churches and local media outlets to change daily habits among the people, and to regulate imports of food products that reduce fat. Furthermore, engagement is necessary with companies to ensure they track employee well-being and exercise goals through applications such as smart watches, working with schools to ensure exceptional importance is given to diet and physical activity and to enforce annual preventive health assessment linked to the Emirati identity card.
Decoding insurance, taxes and strategy into public health futures
The UAE has already levied taxes on sugary drinks, which is very encouraging, however sugars in food along with set nutrition standards for school canteens, food delivery platforms, government cafeterias and during global events must be looked into. Insurance schemes must be embedded into preventive health programs and into the national health policy linking it to annual health touchpoints such as work place assessment and routine screening initiatives.Given the UAE climate, summer heats encourage people to stay indoors for months, which means the UAE will need to invest in public health futures through indoor public fitness spaces, shaded walkways, cooling transit links built into urban health planning. Insurance companies must be encouraged to provide life course insurance prevention that surrounds workplace wellness, school nutrition, maternal health, physical education, mental health wellness and healthy ageing to support working, ageing Emiratis along with expats.
Make primary care the front door
Preventive medicine consultants working on lifestyle and longevity will transition UAE’s future into a healthier one if invested in. The UAE will be able to save millions in dirhams for the national exchequer if preventive medicine is mainstreamed with primary care the first line of control.This would mean primary care tied with coordinated referrals, prevention targets linked to neighbourhood clinical centers, telehealth facilities and community pharmacists who can play a major role in industrial and remote communities. Digital foundations such as Malaffi in Abu Dhabi, NABIDH in Dubai and other federal platforms can be integrated at the point of care to create uniform record securely accessible anywhere in the country. The UAE stands at the threshold to combine precision prevention at national scale through the Emirati Genome Program, but would need to fix consent rules, transparent AI governance and privacy safeguards.
The case for acting now
The UAE has shown it can transform outcomes and champion solutions consistently over the years. Road deaths have fallen by about three-quarters since 2011 through enforcement, technology and sustained campaigns. A preventive health policy needs the same national resolve, which will be a powerful economic and social investment engine leapfrogging the Emirates into a new together.While the UAE envisions sustainable progress for 2071 centennial vision, the human health challenge is very real and the next health achievement should be measured not by the number of hospitals it opens, but by the number of people who would never need them. Shifting from sick-care to preventive health-care is the smartest investment the UAE can make in its people, its economy and its centennial vision.
Disclaimer: Views expressed above are the author’s own.