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UAE: Hospitals of the future to have robot surgeons, AI cameras, says expert
Hospitals are already using artificial intelligence to optimise resources, preventing doctor burnout and increasing efficiency
- PUBLISHED: Tue 9 Sept 2025, 7:54 AM
What will a hospital of the future look like? According to a top UAE expert, it will be a place with a “robotic command center” where “few surgeons will operate robots across multiple operating rooms”. This vision was described by Professor Georges-Pascal Haber, CEO of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.
“Here, nurses will be able to observe a lot of patients across multiple locations like their cars, houses and even on their wearables,” he said. “This is how we should be thinking of the hospital of the future. It is going to be very different from what it is now.”
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Professor Haber was talking on a panel discussion on Monday about the next generation hospital at the three-day conference WHX Tech. The event will spotlight how AI, robotics, VR, cybersecurity, virtual care, and big data are reshaping patient care, system resilience, and future healthcare delivery.
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Artificial intelligence
According to other speakers on the panel, hospitals are already using artificial intelligence to optimise resources. Dr. Myriam Fernandez, Head of Health Innovation at Amazon Web Services, explained that AI was helping prevent doctors from feeling burnt out. “Nearly half of our clinicians are suffering burnout and one of the main reasons is the time that they are spending on unnecessary administrative tasks,” she said.
She gave the example of how agentic AI was reducing no-shows by 30 per cent, ensuring that patients are seeing the right professional at the right time and how they were working with an analytics platform to transform disconnected data into actionable insights to speed up administrative processes.
Professor Haber then went on to describe how at his facility in Abu Dhabi, AI was helping prevent sepsis, a life-threatening emergency caused when a patient’s body responds overwhelmingly to an infection. “There are AI-driven algorithms where the medical record is going through the patient's data and make sure no patient is developing sepsis,” he said. “And if they develop sepsis, then they are treated very, very quickly. That's how we're able to decrease the risk of death of sepsis by at least 50 per cent.”
Robots for supply management
Some of the experts explained how robots were contributing to the future of hospitals. Dr. Meong Hi Son, Chief Medical Information Officer at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, gave an example of how they introduced robots at their facility five years ago to deliver supplies at night.
She said that although “it was far from simple” to introduce robots in a hospital with multiple buildings and narrow corridors, milling with people, it was a success.
“The real value came when robotics was combined with our smart cabinets and predictive supply management,” she said. “Instead of nurses checking stock and placing manual orders, each one now receives what they are predicted to need. This eliminated storage spaces inside hospitals, as each cabinets are stocked from outside, and streamlined logistics to free nurses from repetitive, non-clinical work that often consume energy and undermine professional pride.”
Facial recognition
Speaking to Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the event, Dr. Harvey Castro, Advisor of AI and Healthcare for Singapore Government, explained how futuristic hospitals will soon be able to use facial recognition software in their emergency rooms.
“When someone comes in sick, the camera knows how sick they are and can measure (their) HRV and heart rate,” he said. “When someone comes in after that, the camera will know if that person is sicker. In the waiting room, the AI will be able to catch patients before they go downhill and alert doctors that the patient needs to be seen immediately. Everything will be automated. As the doctor looks at the patient, starts asking for symptoms and his notes are transcribed, the pharmacist already knows what medication is required and is shipping it.”
