UAE’s focus on innovation helps discover growing talent in region, says Ruchi Dana

The UAE’s focus on innovation is helping it to discover a lot of growing talent in the region, said Dr Ruchi Dana, a qualified medical practitioner, who has transitioned successfully into a seasoned entrepreneur and business leader.

Dana was recently invited by the Ministry of Economy for the Golden Visa for ‘Talented Individuals’, a special category for Golden Visa. “The Golden Visa initiative is a very good gesture by the UAE government to promote and retain talent in the region. I am extremely grateful to the UAE government for granting me the Golden Visa and I am looking forward to collaborating with authorities and universities for more research work in the region,” said Dana, who is a medical physician and a Stanford MBA.

“I also took the Stanford BioDesign programme and a lot of medical device companies are incubated and started from that programme. On similar lines, I hope to help commercialise medical devices, R&D Projects that come out of the universities in the UAE and help the nation be self-sufficient to emerge as a leader in industry 4.0 adoption.”

Dana is a frequent speaker at various industry conferences in the US, Europe, Middle East, India and South Asia and serves on several corporate and startup boards including Dana Group of Companies, UAE, Duluth Medical Technologies Inc US, University of California Chico Cybersecurity Board, American University Dubai (AUD) Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center AEIC-UI.

Dana, who is also an advisor to some Silicon Valley-based VC firms and has been recognised by Forbes Middle East as ‘Next Gen Business Leader, Arab World’ and Forbes ME Top PowerBusinesswomen 2020. “I look forward to creating a bridge between the Silicon Valley and the Middle East and help play my part in UAE’s vision for industrial growth. I strive to contribute to the realisation of the UAE’s ‘Operation 300 Bn’ to transform the industrial and advanced technology sector and promote the ‘Make It in the Emirates’ initiative of the government,” added Dana.

Dana has been working on medical devices right through her undergraduate college days and has presented various papers, publications on low-cost medical devices at international conferences. Following her passion for medical devices, she is currently also devoting time to Duluth Medical Technologies, a Silicon Valley-based Robotic Medtech company, as President, COO and is looking to realise her dream of making robotic surgeries more affordable and scalable, thus democratising healthcare for all.

Duluth has filed several US patents for its IP, and Dana is one of the inventors of these US PCT patents. Dana was invited by the UAE’s Prime Minister’s Office to present a case study on Duluth for the UAE Government Youth Leaders Programme 2021. — sandhya@khaleejtimes.com

Sandhya D'Mello

Journalist. Period. My interests are Economics, Finance and Information Technology. Prior to joining Khaleej Times, I have worked with some leading publications in India, including the Economic Times.