Image credit: the_dead_pixel, Flickr Creative Commons

The Middle East’s population is booming. The UN Population Division expects it to grow by 72% between now and the year 2100. (1)

This year’s Arab Health conference takes place at a time when the region’s healthcare industry is exponentially expanding to serve the needs of this continuously growing demographic, so it is crucial that the medical industry is up to the task of serving the region’s changing needs.

More than 130,000 healthcare professionals from 163 countries are expected to attend Arab Health this year, to experience a glimpse into the future of healthcare in the Middle East.

This year will see the introduction of digital solutions that use Big Data and the Industrial Internet to enhance diagnosis, productivity, and cost-effectiveness.

“Digital isn’t the future, it’s the now,” said Maher Abouzeid, President & CEO of GE Healthcare’s Eastern Growth Markets. “The region’s public and private providers want to partner with companies that can transform healthcare at the departmental, hospital, and system level. GE can bring this and digital is the thread that links our offerings together.”

“Digital healthcare isn’t just about connecting hospital departments and physicians more effectively, but also utilizing the masses of data from our diagnostic MRI and CT scanners, for example, to help clinicians make better care decisions, improve productivity and generate efficiencies.”

Click for full-size infographic.

Of the technology being showcased this year, here is a glimpse:

Software called OnWatch remotely monitors medical equipment and use the data it gathers to predict faults, and put out the alert, before they even happen.

Omnyx^TM Digital Pathology Solution is used to view tissue samples in high definition on a computer screen from any location in the world. This will help solve many of pathology’s biggest shortcomings today.

DoseWatch uses data from medical scans to analyze and report every patient’s radiation exposure, helping clinicians find the balance between dose, image quality and patient safety.

ViosWorks* displays the heart in not three, not four, but seven dimensions: three in space, one in time, and three in velocity and direction – so doctors can clearly see the speed, direction and volume of blood flow. The system dramatically cuts the time needed to perform a cardiac MRI from sixty minutes to ten or less, so significantly more patients could be screened daily.

ViosWorks* in action.

“Many of these Industrial Internet solutions are already being adopted in the region and we’re proud to launch several of these technologies for the first time at Arab Health,” added Abouzeid. “With over eighty years of GE in the Middle East, this is an incredibly exciting time for healthcare transformation in the region that has the potential to significantly improve outcomes for our health systems and ultimately, for patients.”

Stay tuned to our Arab Health 2016 Hub, where we will be reporting on all the key announcements and broadcasting live feeds from the trade show floor via Periscope.

*ViosWorks is not yet commercially available

Reference

1 – http://uk.businessinsider.com/chart-demographic-and-population-statistics-when-earth-hits-10-billion-2016-1