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Smart Salem: Designing the first touchpoint of health
CEO Amanda Gravitis on turning visa compliance into a premium, AI-driven preventative healthcare ecosystem
- PUBLISHED: Mon 16 Feb 2026, 10:23 AM
For most residents in Dubai, the visa medical fitness test is a necessary administrative step — functional, time-sensitive, and often squeezed between work commitments. At Smart Salem, that same process has been restructured to take just 10 minutes, with results delivered within 30.
Since joining the company in 2022, CEO Amanda Gravitis has overseen rapid expansion, including new centres and an expanded diagnostics portfolio, while maintaining what she describes as the “human core” of the experience: efficiency without friction, and technology without impersonality.
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In this interview, Gravitis discusses how service design and automation are redefining a government-mandated process, how the model aligns with Dubai’s broader smart-city ambitions, and why the visa medical may increasingly serve as the first entry point into a wider preventative healthcare ecosystem.
Smart Salem is known as Dubai’s only premium, fast-track visa medical fitness experience — what does “premium healthcare” mean in the context of what is a mandatory government process, and how do you deliver value to customers?
Premium healthcare for us means that we prioritise convenience, speed, and luxury-grade service for our customers, making sure their experience is exceptional from the moment they arrive. Importantly, being premium also means that the visa medical experience we offer is vastly superior to anything they would have elsewhere — we are the only testing center in Dubai where you can finish your visa medical test within just 10 minutes and receive your results within 30 minutes, guaranteed.
We are also the only center providing a premium and convenient customer experience where our customers enjoy valet parking, fully digital experiences, walk-in appointments, access to broader holistic preventative health services, and free coffee while they wait — if they have time to drink it! For busy people trying to get their visa or renew it while juggling work and life, we offer the most seamless experience possible in three premium locations - DIFC, Dubai Knowledge Park and City Walk.
You’ve built a reputation around delivering the fastest visa medical test results — how much of that is driven by automation, AI, and robotics, and where do you see technology taking the visa medical journey next?
Our entire business is technology-driven to provide an advanced and innovative service for our customers. From digital check-in and robots that make coffee, to smart queuing systems and automated blood vial conveyor belts, as well as AI-powered advanced wellness and DNA tests, technology, automation, and AI are at the very heart of our operations — improving accuracy, speed, and process efficiency at every step.
AI, in particular, is transforming patient experience throughout the healthcare industry, providing higher levels of personalisation and making complex tests such as gut microbiome analysis more accessible to the community, while improving patient outcomes. Our vision is to bring the future of health and wellness to the UAE, and the key to achieving this is utilising and optimising the latest technologies and innovations. There are some exciting developments in the pipeline.
How does a premium, ultra-fast visa medical ecosystem support Dubai’s broader ambition to be the easiest and most attractive place in the world to live and work?
Smart Salem was established in line with the vision of Dubai D33 under the leadership of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, and with the supervision and support of Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to make the Emirate of Dubai an innovative, smart city and ensure the visa medical aspect of the residency visa process is as efficient as possible.
By offering the fastest, fully digitalised visa medical services, as well as fast-track Emirates ID biometrics, we are able to significantly streamline the process, reducing the administrative burden for people arriving in Dubai or renewing their visas. We also carefully selected three premium locations to best serve Dubai – DIFC, the financial hub, Dubai Knowledge Park which is the home of high tech and education institutions and City Walk which is another very attractive business and residential district. In the future we will be looking to expand into similar locations, where we are needed to serve our communities. Smart Salem is an example of how Dubai is setting the global standard for superior, premium government processes that feel like a privilege rather than a hassle. We are extremely proud to be delivering these next-level services in partnership with Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and Dubai Health (DH).
As demand grows and you expand locations and services, how do you scale without losing the high-touch, premium experience that differentiates you?
The premium service we provide is the core of our business model, so that will never change — we will always offer Dubai’s fastest, most premium visa medical fitness service, utilising automation and technology to ensure a consistently superior experience for every customer, every time.
Since joining Smart Salem in 2022, I’ve overseen rapid growth, including the launch of two new centres and more than 20 new services. Despite the speed at which we have grown, the quality and consistency of the customer experience have never changed because they are so central to how we operate — both from a process, systems, and technology perspective, as well as from a culture and brand perspective.
Every one of our employees understands the importance of delivering exceptional experiences every time — in fact, it’s one of our core values. As we scale, so will our commitment to that promise.
Smart Salem is expanding into preventative health, diagnostics, and wellness — do you see visa medicals as the entry point into a broader premium, preventative healthcare ecosystem?
The importance of preventative health for longevity and healthspan is becoming more widely understood. However, there are still many people who don’t get regularly tested — our research shows that one in ten individuals has never had a general check-up, and this is a real concern for the health of our communities.
If we can use our role in visa medical testing to help highlight this important issue and encourage people to undergo general wellness screening, I see this as a very important community service. We are the only visa medical fitness center providing holistic preventative health and wellness services.
When you come in for your visa medical test, we offer the option to add a full preventative health screening at the same time — one blood test, still only ten minutes in the centre, but with much more comprehensive insights that could make a huge difference to your long-term health.
Outside of this, we also offer a full range of preventative tests, from allergy testing to gut microbiome and DNA analysis, to ensure you truly understand what is happening inside your body before symptoms appear. By providing a holistic suite of wellness services, we can deliver even greater convenience and value during every visit.