Bevan Brittan finds Arab market in good health

Bevan Brittan was delighted to attend the recent Arab Health conference and exhibition in Dubai. The conference is a major industry event with over 100,000 visitors from 150 countries and more than 4,000 exhibitors.

This was the firm’s first year of attending the conference – which provided a fascinating insight into the Middle East both as a market for UK healthcare to gain entry to, and as a source of incoming patient work.

Vincent Buscemi, Head of Independent Health and Social Care at Bevan Brittan, said:

“Arab Health was a fantastic event on a truly impressive scale. The size of it alone underlines the potential of the market out there. We took away a number of key learnings.

“Firstly, digital health and the use of artificial intelligence is an area of huge and very real interest across the industry worldwide. Integrating new technologies holds the potential to improve the patient experience and drive more efficient outcomes. Deep learnings can also be made through all the data that it makes available.

“There are significant opportunities for UK healthcare organisations to enter or to service the Middle East market, either on their own or through partnerships. There was a wide range of UK organisations at Arab Health – from NHS Trusts as well as from independent healthcare companies. For example, there is a growing recognition of the need for better mental health services in the Middle East region, and a growing emphasis on wellbeing as a concept.

“The Middle East remains a major potential source of inbound work for the UK healthcare sector. However, this does appear to be on a downward trend currently due to a change in local laws meaning that insurance companies will no longer cover travel and associated costs for patients travelling abroad.”

Vincent concluded: “It was hugely worthwhile attending the event – and we are already planning to go again next year.”