UK-UAE Collaboration in Cancer Care

Healthcare is one of the key priorities for the UAE-UK Business Council, because it is a sector that presents one of the strongest opportunities for closer commercial collaboration between the two countries.

When the Business Council was relaunched in September 2020 a Working Group on Healthcare was established, and key achievements included roundtables and webinars on UK-UAE collaboration in digital healthcare and in mental health and wellbeing.

Since September 2022, the Group has been focussing solely on UK-UAE collaboration in cancer care. This campaign is led on the UK side by Lord Kakkar, Chairman of Kings Health Partners, and on the UAE side by Dr Maha Barakat, Director General of the Frontline Heroes Office, and a Senior Advisor at Mubadala. This Group has brought together over 20 senior experts and business leaders in the field of cancer care, including from organisations such as GSK, Royal Marsden Hospital, Guys and St Thomas’s, Abu Dhabi Health Authority, Mubadala Health, Burjeel Medical Centre and UAE University.

The Group hosted a panel discussion on cancer care at Arab Health in January 2023, and the Campaign Group has held several meetings since then. The Group has now decided to focus on three specific areas:

  • Cancer screening and diagnostics

  • Patient data sharing between the UK and UAE

  • Palliative care

The first meetings of these three sub-groups will take place in June. We will hold a one-day Summit during Arab Health in January 2024, where participants in all three Groups will share their findings and exchange ideas on new opportunities for commercial partnerships between the UK and the UAE in cancer care. Following the Summit, the UAE-UK Business Council will write a policy paper setting out recommendations for encouraging such partnerships – this policy paper will be submitted to both Governments for consideration through the Joint Economic Committee.

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