In its latest editorial, the National has underlined that the most enduring effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on medicine will be monitoring the access to treatment for community members. Noting that lockdowns and the need for social distancing impose unprecedented hurdles between the patients and medical professionals, telemedicine has gained significant importance during the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The daily hailed the UAE's measures to improve the country's health sector with advanced technology and proactive strategy. Last week, the Ministry of Health and Prevention, in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi’s Department of Health, Emirates Health Services and Dubai Health Authority, created the Riayati platform - a national medical records database aimed at improving patient care across the health sector and ensuring ease of access to medical services.

The paper termed it a "key moment" in the country's progress towards a unified E-healthcare system as coined by Abdulla bin Mohammed Al Hamed, Chairman of the Department of Health Abu Dhabi.

The platform will provide doctors with ease of access to the medical records of patients. It will further speed up diagnoses and prescriptions and allow patients with greater control of their care. Notably, a unified digital infrastructure for medical data helps various stakeholders including patients, healthcare providers and medical institutions in a country with a variety of choices for necessary treatment.

"High-tech medicine has proven its value throughout the region. Israel, for instance, rolled out the fastest COVID-19 vaccination programme in the world, thanks in large part to its highly centralised and digitised healthcare system and patient records database, data from which was shared to help manufacturers gauge the efficacy of their vaccines," the paper added.

The UAE also employed a similarly efficient system to enhance capacity across hospitals and expand testing and vaccine infrastructure. As a result, the UAE achieved one of the highest testing and vaccination rates in the world.

In addition, the Abu Dhabi-based daily affirmed that technology has helped doctors to reach out to the most isolated patients as well. The emergence of "doctorless" healthcare apps has also boosted the fight against the pandemic crisis.

"The challenges facing the Middle East's healthcare systems have been long in the making, but the innovation being pursued in centres of excellence such as the UAE could be of major significance in a region where healthcare's prognosis is still poor," the paper added.

WAM