The Dubai Academic Health Corporation, AXDEV Global, and Pfizer Global Medical Grants partner on a quality improvement initiative to enhance care for patients with chronic illness

This innovative public-private partnership will establish an evidence-based model to boost capacity development for health systems initially in Dubai, to be scaled up in Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and North Africa in phases

Through this collaboration between the Dubai Academic Health Corporation, AXDEV Global and Pfizer Global Medical Grants, Dubai will serve as a testbed to plan and implement the model in four health centers

Diabetes will be used as a case example to apply and measure the impact of the interventions to be scaled to other chronic illnesses

Dubai – Gulf Tech –

The Dubai Academic Health Corporation, AXDEV Global, and Pfizer Global announced a public-private partnership to enhance care for patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses, supported by an independent grant from Pfizer Global Medical Grants. The goal of the collaboration is to establish an evidence-based model in performance and quality improvement to support the adoption of best practices and boost capacity development for patient care with chronic illnesses at the individual, team, practice, and health systems levels.

Dubai will serve as a testbed to plan and implement the model, identified as the ideal city for the research given its diverse cultural population and unwavering support of its academic health system, the Dubai Academic Health Corporation. The findings will then be scaled to enhance chronic illness care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and North Africa. The Dubai Academic Health Corporation will host the initiative at its medical university, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU), and AXDEV will provide expert implementation research & project management across every step of the program. All activities are supported by Pfizer’s independent grant including the research, development, and execution of medical education activities, toolkits and implementation science across multiple health centres in Dubai.

Through a research project out of MBRU, the research will take diabetes as a case example to apply and measure the impact of the interventions in four local health centres in Dubai. Today, diabetes is a chronic illness that affects almost one in every five adults in the United Arab Emirates and is one of the leading causes of kidney failure globally. The evidence and results gathered in Dubai will then be scaled to LMICs to reorganize chronic illness care and provide critical tools and education for clinicians, allied health professionals, staff and healthcare administrators.

Commenting on the importance of public-private partnerships, Dr. Hanan Alsuwaidi, Chief Business Officer of the Dubai Academic Health Corporation, shared, “The healthcare industry has experienced significant changes since the pandemic. World-class healthcare systems are now turning to proficient partnerships to reimagine business models and access new capabilities. Public-private partnerships, like this one between the Dubai Academic Health Corporation, AXDEV and Pfizer, leverage the strength of all its members to accelerate the adoption of best practices in patient care.”

Suzanne Murray, Founder and CEO of AXDEV Group adds, “This public private collaboration, that will bring cutting edge education solutions for healthcare professionals and their teams to directly impact clinical practice, is a testimony that three major organizations, as well as the health centres involved, are committed to improve patient health outcomes with evidence based and quality education and implementation research.”

Yasser El Dershaby, Vice President, MERA Regional Cluster Medical Lead, Pfizer, also commented on the importance of health equity, “Accessible healthcare for patients living with chronic illnesses is critical given that they are tethered to the healthcare system. Especially in LMICs, it has always been Pfizer’s goal to enhance health equity in underserved communities. Our new public-private partnership with The Dubai Academic Health Corporation and AXDEV Global brings us one step closer to bridging these gaps, and I look forward to the results from our initial research in Dubai.”