Dubai Healthcare City has been called to my attention as what I will refer to here as an emerging global healthcare node. By this I mean a magnet healthcare delivery complex with a global or wide regional reach. Examples of such nodes in the U.S. would include Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and the Harvard affiliated hospitals, all of which have designed as set of services to attract cash customers from abroad and viewed as healthcare brands. Below is a quote from the Dubai Healthcare City home page which you can link to here:
The Government of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is developing Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) with the goal of creating a regional center of excellence for medical services, medical education, and life science research and development in the Middle East. DHCC is the world's first health care free zone. .... DHCC has invited internationally respected institutions in health care delivery, education, services, and research and development to collocate on the site to take advantage of the synergies brought about by physical proximity, interconnectivity, and professional collaboration...The DHCC tenants will have to meet international building standards and quality standards, including accreditation within 36 months of start-up, and will face probation and then suspension of license if accreditation is not forthcoming.... The total site comprises of two phases, including disease treatment, prevention and wellness facilities. The first phase, located behind Wafi City, Dubai, is approximately 4.1 million square feet in size. The second phase, dedicated to wellness facilities, will be announced soon.... Under the auspices of the Center for Healthcare Planning and Quality (CPQ), Harvard Medical International and DHCC will oversee a quality assurance system that will guide continuous improvement throughout the entire site.
I was intrigued by their reference to a healthcare free zone. Here is a link to the Emirates Free Zones web page that describes the various free zones already in existence and the financial advantages for offshore enterprises to set up a business in the Emirates. Dubai Healthcare City is also extensively co-branding itself with various for-profit and non-profit entities such as Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical International, Astra Zeneca, Novo Nordisk, and the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery. From the January 2006 DHCC clinical services report, here is a summary of their anticipated bed count for the total complex:
Total Beds Planned for DHCC -1,855
Total Acute Care beds- 1,405
Total Rehab/Long Term Care Beds- 450
I was curious about lab services for DHCC until I came across this information which you can link to here:
Laboratoire Marcel Merieux (LMM), one of the oldest and well-known laboratory groups in Europe and around the world, will open its first branch outside Europe in Dubai, in association with the Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Centre (HMC),...The joint centre is earmarked to open at Dubai Healthcare City in 2006....The Laboratoire Marcel Merieux (LMM), one of the oldest and well-known Laboratory groups in Europe, was established in 1897 in Lyon,...Today, LMM is one of Europe's leading names in specialised clinical pathology and performs more than 2,000 tests requiring specialist expertise and sophisticated technologies not available in first line laboratories. Its testing services, particularly in the service areas of hormonology, oncology and virology, are utilised by hospitals, laboratories and pharmaceutical companies worldwide. LMM handles up to 25,000 patient requisitions daily.
It's probably not surprising that major U.S. reference labs such as Quest and LabCorp did not bite at this Dubai bait, probably being content to grow their business here in the biggest lab market in the world. However, my guess is that DHCC will develop a sophisticated telemedicine/telepathology infrastructure and can tap into the U.S. specialty pool at Mayo and Harvard for remote spot consulting when needed. Mayo Medical Labs (MML) will also be in line to provide those esoteric lab tests that LMM can't.
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