In line with efforts to advance the healthcare sector in the UAE and strengthen its leadership, Emirates Health Services (EHS) organized the "Innovation Hackathon", attended by H.E. Dr. Yousif Mohammed Al Serkal, Director General of EHS. The event, aimed at promoting innovation practices in the local healthcare sector, witnessed broad participation from healthcare professionals, technologists, and innovators to devise creative solutions for addressing healthcare challenges.
The three-day event sought to develop and achieve the UAE's healthcare sector goals while supporting national strategies such as the National Strategy for Wellbeing 2031 and the UAE Centennial 2071. These strategies emphasize the importance of fostering sustainable and innovative healthcare systems through exploring new tools, techniques, and methods to improve patient care and streamline healthcare processes.
Dr. Sara AlShaya, Director of the Data and Statistics Department at EHS, stated that the "Innovation Hackathon" represents a significant milestone within a series of steps undertaken by EHS to enhance the healthcare sector. She noted that the event reflects EHS’s commitment to empowering young talents and experts, utilizing their capabilities to develop and implement novel ideas and technologies, and creating impactful solutions that contribute to the development of the sector and elevate service quality. These improvements include reducing waiting times, enhancing diagnostic accuracy, and strengthening communication with patients. This supports institutional excellence and aligns with the UAE's ambitious vision of establishing a sustainable knowledge economy.
Dr. AlShaya further emphasized that the Hackathon brought together elite professionals from various fields, including developers, designers, and technologists, to effectively shape the future of healthcare by innovating sustainable and efficient solutions. This initiative supports local talent and inspires creative ideas in line with the UAE's vision to develop forward-thinking innovative solutions that address the evolving needs of the healthcare sector and anticipate future challenges.
During the hackathon, key focus areas and critical healthcare topics were highlighted, including advanced data analytics such as exploratory data analysis, predictive analytics, and machine learning models. EHS aimed to adopt the best innovative practices related to inpatient data, surgical operations, and emergency departments.
Additionally, participants were presented with several operational challenges faced by EHS in delivering patient services and were tasked with finding solutions using innovative methods. They explored the significance of data in the healthcare sector and developed prototypes to address these challenges. EHS provided all necessary tools and training on the SAS Viya platform, a unified system employed by it to facilitate innovation in healthcare.