Estonian future health solutions introduced at Dubai Expo

TALLINN - A business delegation of Estonia's field of health care met with representatives of the Ministry of Health and Prevention of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Abu Dhabi Department of Health at Dubai Expo to discuss opportunities for cooperation.

The meetings were held as part of the Arab Health and Medlab 2022 health technology fairs, which also saw conducted an entrepreneurship seminar aimed at the development and integration of future health solutions at the Expo's Estonian pavilion, spokespeople for the Tartu city government said.

"Like in Estonia, one of the important goals of the United Arab Emirates' health care system is personal disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment. The establishment of a nationwide genome project and the implementation of digital health care opportunities for creating a better system form a definite common ground with Estonia," Peeter Padrik, CEO of the company Antegenes, said, commenting on cooperation opportunities between the two countries. 

The ambassador of Estonia to UAE Jaan Reinhold said that innovations in the Estonian health care system have attracted considerable attention in the UAE.

"For example, the collection and processing of genetic data, technological approaches to assessing genetic predispositions to diseases and the digitization of the health care system as a whole. This shows Estonia's potential not only in terms of export of services and new medical technology solutions to the UAE, but also in the field of research in medicine in general," he said. 

It was acknowledged at the meeting that cooperation between the two states must be significantly strengthened in the mapping of genetic data and digitization of the health care system and for that purpose, concrete follow-up activities must be agreed upon.

"We've sparked great interest in mutual cooperation at the highest level," Jaanus Pikani, head of the business delegation and member of the management board of the Tartu Biotechnology Park, said.

A Tartu-based company, Solis BioDyne, took part in the Medlab 2022 fair and, according to the representatives of the business, there was great interest in Estonian companies at the fair.

"Medlab is an event of great importance for us as it brings together key people and companies from the Arab world as well as its neighboring countries. Together, we can make genetics work even better for people," Stephan Goldenbaum, CEO of Solis BioDyne, said. 

Next year, Estonian companies are planning to present a joint stand at the health technology fairs.

The business seminar held on Jan. 31 entitled "Digital nation. Personalized solutions for healthcare & wellbeing" was organized by the City of Tartu together with Antegenes. Participants in the seminar and other events for the field included representatives of the companies Antegenes, Asper Biogene, Tervisetehnoloogiate Arenduskeskus AS, Connected Health cluster, DocuMental, the University of Tartu Institute of Genomics, Migrevention, Nordwise Biotech, Solis BioDyne, Tartu Biotechnology Park and Triumf Health.

The participation of the health delegation was supported by the City of Tartu and the Connected Health Estonia cluster as well as the Estonian embassy and representation of Enterprise Estonia in Abu Dhabi. The World Expo in Dubai will remain open until the end of March 2022.