QNA
Doha
In a session on “Disrupting Healthcare: The Radical Changes Shaping the Biomedical Industry” held within the activities of the ongoing Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, a number of experts, researchers and academics praised the Qatari experience and the steps taken by the countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf in advancing the field of biomedicine and attracting the latest relevant technologies.
The session’s speakers attributed this to the optimal use of physical and human capital in attracting companies operating in this field and stimulating the private sector to invest in it, stressing that this region can play a major and pioneering role in the development of biomedical technology building on its network of relations with developed Western countries in this area.
Stressing the importance of cooperation, teamwork, and the exchange of experiences and information about diseases to facilitate the process of discovering them and benefiting from technology in providing effective and rapid treatments for them, they said that the twenty-first century is the “century of biomedicine” because of the ability to discover new treatments for intractable diseases and improve health care and developing it through innovation and scientific discoveries in the areas of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases that affect the population.
Despite the beginning of reliance on biomedicine many years ago, progress in it still requires greater effort and more focus in order to bear the desired fruits with the need to harness technology in this sector to accelerate its growth and development, they noted.
Touching on the importance of stem cell laboratories and genome technology in developing new biomarkers, diagnostic and therapeutic solutions, facilitating early diagnosis and treatment of diseases, managing specific diseases, and improving personalized medicine and health care, the speakers noted the necessity of establishing partnerships with prestigious national and international institutions, transcending geographical borders and facing various medical challenges along with attracting eminent scientists to transform research into medical practices faster and more efficiently, and making use of innovation and modern genetic technologies.
The speakers also expressed their admiration for the adoption of genome projects in the Gulf countries, the free health care network that covers the entire population, the large investment in research infrastructure, genetic research efforts in them and the focus on capacity building at the national level, stressing that these new projects can achieve a major qualitative transformation in health care in the region.
The participants also noted the important and vital role of artificial intelligence (AI) in creating new treatments and accelerating the discovery of medicines and vaccines for incurable diseases, including the Coronavirus, as the use of technology in producing
vaccines.
