UAE’s AI healthcare leap: The future of medicine is already here

In a world increasingly shaped by technology, the UAE has made significant strides in leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to redefine the future of healthcare. Guided by a bold national vision and cohesive leadership, the UAE has not only exceeded regional expectations but is setting new international benchmarks in digital health innovation.

“Let me begin by highlighting the remarkable achievements the UAE has made in the fields of healthcare and artificial intelligence,” said Dr Amin Al Ameeri, assistant undersecretary for the Health Regulation Sector at the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP), during his welcome address at WHX Tech 2025. “What we are accomplishing goes far beyond the expectations of many nations. Guided by our visionary leadership, we continuously strive to be number one.”

Read more-UAE’s healthcare revolution: AI, robots, data redefine medicine

At the heart of this transformation is a deeply integrated healthcare model. The UAE functions as a unified health ecosystem, encompassing the Abu Dhabi Department of Health (DoH), Dubai Health Authority (DHA), Sharjah Health Authority, and other local entities, all coordinated under MoHAP. National strategies are never issued in silos; instead, they emerge from broad consultation across government and private stakeholders, aligning every major decision with the needs of the entire sector.

Strategic milestones in the UAE’s health-AI journey

• Nationwide health data integration: Riayah, NABIDH, and Malaffi platforms now form a connected national health information infrastructure.
• AI-enabled disease prediction and prevention: Public health is increasingly proactive, using AI for trend forecasting and population risk modeling.
• Organ donation innovation: The Hayat platform leads the region in deceased donor registrations and is now AI-powered for equitable organ matching.
• Next-gen diagnostics: BioSign delivers accurate, point-of-care results in seconds, using AI and a few drops of blood.
• Security and trust by design: AI systems like NABIDH’s privacy intelligence protect over 9 million health records in real time.

Building bridges with data: The power of Riayah

A central pillar of the UAE’s digital health strategy is Riayah, a national health data platform that unifies medical records across the country. Aptly named (Riayah translates to “care”), the platform integrates data from MoHAP, DHA, and DoH, allowing healthcare professionals to access a patient’s full medical history, regardless of location.

“With Riayah, every patient has a single, unified file accessible throughout the UAE,” explained Dr Al Ameeri. “A patient can move from Ras Al Khaimah to Dubai, and physicians can securely access their full medical history, with patient consent.”

The result is a seamless healthcare experience: reduced diagnostic duplication, faster care delivery, and improved safety, especially in emergency cases. “If a patient is unconscious, doctors can access their records, avoid contraindications, and provide safer, faster care,” Dr Al Ameeri added. “Time saved is lives saved. That’s the real impact of this platform.”

More importantly, Riayah is the data backbone for national AI applications. With high-quality, unified datasets in place, AI algorithms can deliver more accurate insights, enhancing care quality and efficiency. “If the data isn’t accurate or complete, the AI’s recommendations will be flawed. That’s why we’ve invested in ensuring data integrity,” Dr Al Ameeri emphasised.

AI models built on Riayah are now being used to predict health trends, prevent disease outbreaks, and improve overall outcomes for both Emiratis and residents.

Hayat: A smart leap forward in organ transplants

In another landmark initiative, the UAE introduced Hayat, a smart platform for organ donation and transplant management. Launched on January 27, 2020, under the leadership of Sheikh Mohammed, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Hayat allows any UAE resident to register as an organ donor in under a minute.

Since its inception, the platform has driven measurable success:

• 11.6 deceased donors per million population
• 8 heart transplants performed
• Hundreds of kidney, liver, and lung transplants completed

This puts the UAE at the forefront of organ transplant coordination in the Middle East.

The next frontier for Hayat is AI integration. AI will assist in matching donor organs to the most critical and compatible patients, regardless of nationality, ensuring that transplant decisions are guided solely by medical need and urgency. This system not only accelerates time-sensitive decisions but enhances fairness and transparency.

BioSign and the rise of AI-driven diagnostics

The UAE is also making headlines with BioSign, an AI-powered biometric health system unveiled in February 2025 and currently in its final trial phase. This system uses just a few drops of blood to deliver lab-grade diagnostic insights, including Hemoglobin A1c and cholesterol levels, with over 94 per cent accuracy in under 50 seconds.

Expected to be fully launched by the end of 2025, BioSign is a game-changer for real-time diagnostics, especially in remote or high-volume care settings.

In parallel, AI is being used for strategic planning, helping identify where more hospitals or specialty services are needed. MoHAP is also rolling out a unified physician licensing system, allowing doctors registered in one emirate to practice across the country, further enhancing workforce flexibility.

AI isn’t just about care delivery, it’s also about governance and benchmarking. The UAE is aligning its regulations with those of global health agencies such as WHO, FDA, EMA, NHRA, and Australia’s TGA, ensuring global interoperability and compliance.

National achievements in 2025: A banner year for AI in healthcare

The year 2025 has already marked a series of landmark achievements in the UAE’s AI healthcare journey, as outlined by global AI health advisor Dr Harvey Castro, MD, advisor on AI and healthcare to the Singapore Government in an interview with Gulf Business:

• Nationwide AI-ready health data infrastructure: The UAE finalised the deep integration of Riayati, Malaffi, and NABIDH, enabling clinicians across the country to access and analyze patient data at scale.
• Real-time privacy intelligence: In April 2025, DHA integrated AI into NABIDH to monitor data access patterns and safeguard over 9 million records, a first-of-its-kind implementation in the region.
• Precision and preventive AI at scale: Abu Dhabi’s Malaffi reached 3.5 billion clinical records across 12.7 million unique patients, offering rich data for AI-driven risk modeling, pharmacogenomics, and radiology.
• AI for Medical Imaging: M42’s AIRIS-TB platform published one of the world’s largest real-world AI studies for tuberculosis, analysing over 1 million chest X-rays with an AUC of 98.5 per cent, safely automating 80 per cent of readings with zero false negatives.
• Clinical LLM deployment: Med42-v2.0, a UAE-developed large language model for healthcare, demonstrated 87.3 per cent performance on USMLE-style questions, outperforming GPT-3.5 and logging over 8,200 downloads, evidence of rapid uptake.
• Operational AI in patient access: In April 2025, DHA deployed NLP-powered analytics in its contact center, applying speech and text recognition to enhance service quality and responsiveness.

MoHAP’s role: Orchestrating the national AI strategy

MoHAP plays a central role in mainstreaming AI across the healthcare ecosystem. Its Artificial Intelligence Office is driving the adoption of advanced AI technologies, including natural language processing (NLP), generative AI, and computer vision, on platforms like SAS Viya, ensuring alignment with both clinical priorities and national quality standards.

Interoperability has also been a MoHAP-led priority. By coordinating the integration of Riayati with Malaffi and NABIDH through FHIR-based architecture, MoHAP has established a safe and standardised foundation for AI deployment.

Through platforms like Enayati, MoHAP is using AI to track health indicators and predict risks for vulnerable populations. It also supports capacity building by working with emirate authorities and global partners to scale validated AI pilots and equip the workforce with the right digital skills.

People first: The UAE’s guiding principle

Despite rapid digitisation, the UAE’s approach remains unapologetically human-centric.

“The UAE is not just adopting AI, we are shaping the future of how AI will serve humanity in health,” said Dr Al Ameeri. “We are committed to using technology not just to treat, but to predict, prevent, and protect. The human being is at the center of everything we do.”

With a clear national vision, advanced digital infrastructure, and a commitment to ethical AI, the UAE has transitioned from health system modernisation to global leadership in AI-powered healthcare.