Kingdom’s healthcare sector to ‘witness massive transformation in coming years’

The Kingdom’s healthcare sector will witness a huge transformation in the coming years, according to a leading doctor and healthcare executive. American Mission Hospital (AMH) Chief Executive and Chief Medical Officer Dr. George Cheriyan said that the increasing prominence of latest technologies will totally change the healthcare sector.

Highlighting the two major changes that would be strongly felt in the sector in the next few years, he said: “The follow-up visits with doctors will take place at home using the latest medical software. Gadgets designed for medical purposes will also help doctors monitor patients’ health and provide wellness care.”

Dr. Cheriyan said the concept of healthcare is gradually shifting from “traditional sickness model” to “wellness care”. “Technology is disrupting the traditional models of healthcare from a patient having to always come to a hospital to visit a doctor to receiving consultation from home.

So basically in the next few years, follow-up care where a patient having to come back to a hospital will be obsolete because all of this could be done through medical apps where you will schedule an appointment to see your doctor through an app and you would have a consultation.

No travel will be necessary except for perhaps the initial consultation. “The technology will allow us to stay in touch with a patient not just for the 15 minutes when the patient is in at the hospital. For example, if you’re a diabetic and you can have a Fitbit type of device which can record your blood sugar and send feedback to the doctor.”

When asked about AMH’s expansion plans, he said: “Our past is pretty much well known to all people of Bahrain. AMH is the first hospital in the Kingdom and as an organization, we have been in existence for 120 years. “During the past five to seven years, we have been substantially increasing our footprint in the Kingdom. Initially, the only place where we had our presence was the American Hospital in Manama. We then started a small clinic in Saar.