A New Era for Digital Health: Abu Dhabi’s Leap to Health Intelligence
As health systems worldwide face rising costs, growing chronic disease burdens and uneven digital progress, this white paper argues that digitization alone is no longer sufficient. A new era of global health requires a system-level leap: one that embeds intelligence – not just digital tools – at the foundation of health.
As health systems worldwide face rising costs, growing chronic disease burdens and uneven digital progress, this white paper argues that digitization alone is no longer sufficient. A new era of global health requires a system-level leap: one that embeds intelligence – not just digital tools – at the foundation of health.
Co-authored by the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi and the World Economic Forum, the paper illustrates how Abu Dhabi has progressed beyond isolated digital solutions to build an integrated, intelligence-driven health system. This approach is underpinned by real-time, AI-enabled infrastructure designed to advance prevention, equity and personalized care at population scale. Drawing on parallels from system-level transformations seen in banking, cloud computing and energy, the paper shows how health can similarly leapfrog legacy models by treating intelligence as a shared, foundational service. It outlines the enabling conditions, governance mechanisms and investment principles required by countries looking to accelerate this transition in collaboration with private-sector leaders.
This blueprint is a contribution to the emerging "Pathfinders" network of the Forum's Digital Healthcare Transformation (DHT) Initiative. It offers actionable insights from a global exemplar – and extends an invitation to partners to co-create resilient, intelligence-driven health systems capable of global scale.