An AI-Driven Dream: Towards Emirates Health Service’s Vision of Sustainable Healthcare

In the pursuit of sustainable development goals, the global healthcare sector stands at a critical point, grappling with the pressing issue of massive carbon emissions contributed as a result of healthcare-related activities. The healthcare industry is estimated to contribute to greater than 4% of global carbon emissions, translating into approximately 1.48 billion metric tonnes annually.

Demonstrating a steadfast dedication to sustainable development goals, the United Arab Emirates officially designated 2023 as the “Year of Sustainability.” This announcement underscored the nation’s unwavering commitment to fostering a sustainable future. The journey towards the visionary goal of “today for tomorrow” has been marked by years of concerted efforts on a national scale. The ambitious endeavor involves reducing carbon emissions and elevating the reliance on renewable energy sources to shape a more environmentally conscious and resilient future.

Emirates Health Services (EHS) is fully aligned with the nation’s vision, and they have sketched a clear roadmap to monitor sustainability progress and accelerated alignment with the national goals. As it progresses towards the highly anticipated COP28, they are geared to implement and enhance initiatives that make healthcare service environment-friendly without compromising the quality of care. 

Emirates Health Services caters to the healthcare needs of a vast majority of the UAE population through widespread network of facilities, making it one of the key contributors to the country’s healthcare sector. They focus on the global health goal (SDG-3) of ‘ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages’ by leveraging the Oracle Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. Employing the EHR’s capabilities to pioneer the latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence coupled with telemedicine, they are accelerating towards its aim of reducing the carbon footprint of our healthcare services.

In its endeavours to promote sustainable practices through innovation in the field of healthcare, Emirates Health Services introduced a data-driven, artificial intelligence-based Healthcare Sustainability initiative. This initiative is conceived as a promise to its current and future generations for a cleaner environment today and tomorrow.  EHS’ use of the Oracle EHR acts as the hub of all data captured for all activities occurring across the network, and it works as a pivot to project this data to be leveraged for evidence-based practice. 

Considering the intricate complexities of clinical visit dynamics, EHS has focused on creating practical solutions introduced in well-planned phases. They followed a logical sequence of several projects under this initiative guided by evidence and statistics from our healthcare network.

As the groundbreaking of our initiative, EHS started the journey towards reduced carbon emissions in the pandemic era when they embraced digital platforms and introduced teleconsultation. This was a mandatory step to ensure safe patient care amidst the lockdown. Supported by simplistic and user-friendly technologies, this service is convenient for  patients and helps ensure improved continuity of care for our long-term patients. Patients can opt to seek care from their comfort zones through this facility. 

Further in this journey,  leadership is committed to continuous improvement, led by evaluating the extent of its problem and assess opportunities for further enhancements. It was agreed that EHS requires crisp insights into the burden of our carbon footprint and related dynamics. They used EHR data to create a carbon emissions simulation dashboard that utilizes standard definitions to benchmark daily carbon emissions per facility. This real-time, state-of-the-art simulator is closely monitored by a dedicated team to identify high-emission clinics and services. It guides their team in identifying problem zones and planning strategies for focused interventions.

As an outcome of its ongoing monitoring and evaluation, and keeping abreast with the latest technologies,  EHS leadership agreed that the teleconsultation services must be augmented further to reduce the emissions caused by patient commutes and devised two initiatives to achieve this phase of augmentation. 

First, the experience of teleconsultation has been enhanced by the introduction of metaverse technology for  teleconsultation service. The Oracle EHR system seamlessly integrates with metaverse technology to deliver patients a cohesive experience. This groundbreaking integration provides patients with a unique and immersive encounter, enabling them to virtually engage with a clinical setting right from the comfort of their homes. The global popularity of the metaverse is on the rise, particularly for certain well-defined use cases. There is conclusive evidence that metaverse consultation significantly benefits mental health patients. EHS can endorse this impact as it is being successfully utilized for our long-term mental health patients through careful selection.

In another mention-worthy project under this initiative, EHS used historical EHR data to develop a machine-learning model to rationalize and increase subscriptions to virtual visits. This AI-driven virtual visits promoter project leverages historical outpatient visits data and proactively identifies appointments that can be converted to teleconsultations, benefitting both – the patient and the environment. The machine learning model plays a crucial role in the patient selection process. EHS has employed advanced algorithms to ensure accurate identification and visualisation of the flowchart involved in the patient selection procedure. A scoring mechanism has been developed that considers several essential patient-related factors. This mechanism helps the team identify the potential demographic group and medical service candidates that can be effectively converted to virtual visits. As a result of these dedicated efforts, EHS has witnessed a spike in virtual visit subscriptions, which is reflected in our carbon emissions simulator. The team is committed to enabling high-quality care and supporting sustainable services.

EHS continues to work with our strategic partners to help ensure that the systems implemented are future-ready and sustainable for future generations. Equipped with futuristic technology and a dedicated workforce, EHS continues to contribute  towards the national goal of UAE Net Zero 2050 Commitment.