Abu Dhabi: The regulator of the healthcare sector in the Emirate, the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH) has unveiled the 1st Personalized Precision Medicine Program for Oncology in the region.
Abu Dhabi DoH collaborated with Mubadala Health and its flagship, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, NYU Abu Dhabi, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and G42 Healthcare to introduce the program.
The Program is one of many Abu Dhabi DoH initiatives in the recent past which support the Authority’s mission to drive the future of the healthcare sector with the very latest technology and position Abu Dhabi as an innovation hub in life sciences.
THE PROGRAM
With the use of cutting-edge, artificial intelligence-based technologies, the new program will focus its first phase on breast cancer patients across the Emirate.
The Program will target oncology diseases, building on the latest research and model of care to detect, diagnose and treat breast cancer patients, or reduce the risk or recurrence of the disease.
Under the directives of our wise leadership, Abu Dhabi continues to strengthen its position as a leading destination for advanced healthcare, as well as an incubator for innovation in life sciences. By integrating predictive, personalized and precision medicine using genomics we can take the entire process of diagnostics, drug therapy and prevention, and tailor it to the needs of the specific individual.
Dr. Jamal Mohammed Al Kaabi, Undersecretary of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi described about the new initiative.
LEVERAGING GENOME SCIENCE
The AI-enabled program strives to develop the required research infrastructure to position the UAE as a leader in global genomics balancing discovery and clinical research.
Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and NYU Abu Dhabi are leading the collaborative research efforts that support the application of genome science in oncology medicine in alignment with DoH’s innovation and research strategy.
A world leading research infrastructure will soon be developed through a well-designed computational architecture and dynamic health information governance model.
“Along with our partners we are working on effectively developing, evaluating and introducing these innovative therapeutics and pharmaco-genetics, targeting oncology diseases, especially breast cancer mutations. By using data-driven healthcare services and research, we are evolving the oncology diseases research landscape, incorporating the rich, multi-factorial data, to reduce the prevalence of breast cancer, enhance the treatment and significantly reduce the risks associated with the patient’s lifestyle,” Dr. Al Kaabi stated.
THE FRAME WORK
Abu Dhabi DoH has already developed the regulatory policies and worked with Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi to design the program with core focus on development of clinical testing guidelines and utilizing the collected genome data to create customized treatment plan and genomics counselling for its breast cancer patients who are meeting the program’s criteria.
As part of its collaboration with Abu Dhabi DoH, G42 Healthcare will provide gene sequencing and a clinical genetic report within two weeks of receiving the patient data from Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.
The organization will also work closely with Mubadala Health’s National Reference Laboratory to ensure that the final genetic report is in line with the required standards of care at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.