Dubai will this month host the Middle East’s first dedicated exhibition and Summit devoted to the digital technology driven precision medicine (PM) field with over 70 international experts, thought leaders and medical pioneers from Asia, the Middle East, Europe,and the USA, due to deliver incisive insights into the new methodology which is moving healthcare from a ‘one size fits all’ to a targeted, personalized, approach.

The newly launched Precision Medicine Exhibition & Summit, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Cabinet Member and Minister of State for Tolerance of UAE & President of UAE Genetic Diseases Association, will run at the Conrad Hotel from 24 – 25 May and as healthcare professionals gather to learn the latest PM techniques and innovations, aspiring health tech startups will be pitching for funding to a panel of investors at the co-located Emerge GHI breakthrough event.

The new event launches come as global data and insights firm Netscribes projects the Middle East and Africa precision medicine market to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 9.96% to a revenue worth of US$2.51 billion by 2023.

“We are pleased to organise this unique exhibition and summit underlining the need and importance of precision medicine in the UAE,” said Dr. Maryam Matar, Founder and Chairperson, UAE Genetic Diseases Association.

“The integration of precision medicine into general healthcare settings gives patients with genetic disorders a lot of optimism. Personalised medicine is certainly transforming the healthcare ecosystem for the better, driven by digitalisation and a rapidly rising corpus of knowledge that is redefining how we perceive the very nature of the origins and development of fatal diseases. Precision medicine will help us better understand the role of genetics,provide  tailor-made health management solution for each individual and reduce the burden of not only genetic disorders but other rare diseases in long-run.”

“The launch of this specialised event is very timely as healthcare providers across the GCC are making inroads into precision medicine, which have clearly positioned the region as a potential global hub for this rapidly emerging and transformative healthcare approach,” said David Stradling, Event Director. “The application of digital technologies, including AI, big data,and machine learning, is driving precision medicine into the vanguard of new age healthcare which tailors to individual needs, can improve outcomes and patient experiences, while controlling treatment costs by leveraging data on a patient’s life and risk profile, medical records, health history, and genome. Personalised solutions are gaining traction in genomics and targeted cancer therapies, regenerative medicine, and now include a wide range of diagnostics and treatments for both rare and common diseases.

“GCC healthcare providers have already moved into the PM field, which is expected to grow by 11% annually to 2026 to be worth US$142 billion globally, with Dubai’s Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU) and the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Saudi Arabia having established biomedical and genomics research centres and others expected to follow.At the Precision Medicine Summit, healthcare providers, academic scientists and industry experts will have a uniquely focused opportunity to share knowledge, dicuss challenges and opportunities.”

More than 60 exhibitors from 25 countries at the Precision Medicine Exhibition and Summit will unveil all-new to market innovations which are driving the future of healthcare.

Speaking ahead of the event, Dr Younis Kazim, CEO of Dubai Healthcare Corporation at the Dubai Health Authority, said; “With the use of technological developments such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, precision medicine allows doctors and researchers to accurately predict which treatment and prevention methods for a certain disease will work in which groups of patients. As well as helping to bolster the UAE’s overall healthcare technology development, we are optimistic that the event will have a significant impact on how we treat diseases – ultimately leading to better, and more cost-effective, personalized treatment programmes.”

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Co-located alongside the Precision Medicine Exhibition and Summit is the ground-breaking EMERGE GHI investment forum, which will be a hotbed of innovation where aspiring Health Tech startups will interact with potential investors. Speaking ahead of the Emerge summit is GluCare.Health, the world’s first fully vertically integrated digital therapeutics + provider platform to employ continuous personal health data monitoring.

“The Emerge investment forum is a perfect springboard to showcase our expertise, advanced solutions, and phenomenal outcomes” said Ali Hashemi, Co-Founder & Chairman at GluCare.Health. “The healthcare landscape in the region is evolving at a rapid pace with an increasing need for value based and outcome driven solutions available to both operators and patients. With diabetes recently being escalated from epidemic to pandemic in the region, we are looking to the event as a way to unearth new partnerships that help us further improve and reinvent diabetes care and make sure our platform is accessible to as many patients as possible.”

Emerge GHI organisers believe the event will be an unprecedented incubator to present the best global healthcare ideas to the best minds in regional business and investment.

“From precision medicine to digital diagnostics, artificial intelligence and biocomputing, technology is fostering much-needed change to the health ecosystem,” explained Stradling. “By bringing health and wealth together under the right conditions, we believe great things can, and will, happen.”