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Thumbay Group: Building on a legacy of healthcare innovation
Akbar Moideen Thumbay, Vice-President – Healthcare Division, Thumbay Group, on preparedness, digital transformation and carrying forward a vision that has helped shape the UAE’s healthcare landscape
- PUBLISHED: Thu 25 Jun 2026, 10:19 AM
Over the past two decades, the UAE has transformed its healthcare landscape through significant investments in infrastructure, technology and clinical expertise. As the sector continues to mature, attention is increasingly turning towards ensuring healthcare systems remain adaptable, responsive and capable of meeting the needs of a growing and evolving population.
For Thumbay Group, that philosophy is embedded in its DNA since its founding nearly three decades ago. Today, the organisation operates a broad healthcare ecosystem spanning hospitals, clinics, medical education, research and wellness services. According to Akbar Moideen Thumbay, Vice-President – Healthcare Division, preparedness is not something that happens during a crisis; it is built into the system long before challenges emerge.
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“When my father, Dr Thumbay Moideen, founded Thumbay Group in 1997, the idea was straightforward: build healthcare in the UAE that’s ready for what comes next, not just what’s in front of us,” he said.
At the heart of this approach is an integrated healthcare model that brings together hospitals, education, research and pharmacy services under one umbrella. Thumbay hospitals constitute the largest network of private academic hospitals in the region. The group’s academic medical city in Ajman allows different parts of the ecosystem to work as a connected network.
“We run an integrated academic medical city in Ajman where our hospitals, university, research centres, and pharmacy chain function as one connected system,” Akbar explained.
“When a challenge surfaces — a respiratory virus, a sudden surge in chronic disease, a regional emergency, we can pivot quickly because the people, infrastructure, and data already speak to each other.”
The experience of navigating the Covid-19 pandemic reinforced the importance of readiness across the healthcare sector. Since then, Thumbay Group has continued strengthening its capabilities through ongoing clinical training, infrastructure investments and closer collaboration with health authorities.
“Our clinical teams train continuously through the simulation labs at Gulf Medical University, so muscle memory for emergencies is real, not theoretical,” he said. “We have expanded ICU capacity, isolation infrastructure and supply chain redundancy.”
Looking ahead, preparedness also requires organisations to anticipate risks before they materialise. Carrying forward my father’s legacy means asking, at the beginning of every quarter, what would surprise us a year from now and then make sure it doesn’t," he added.
Digital Systems Strengthen Continuity of Care
As healthcare becomes increasingly connected, digital solutions are playing a central role in ensuring both patient continuity and operational resilience.
For Akbar, healthcare delivery today depends heavily on the ability to create a seamless patient journey regardless of where care is delivered within the network. “Continuity of care lives or dies on data,” he said. “A patient who walks into our Ajman hospital today, then sees a specialist at one of our other facilities next month, deserves a single thread of medical history, not a forced restart.”
To support this, Thumbay Group has unified electronic medical records across its healthcare network, allowing clinicians to access comprehensive patient histories regardless of location. Artificial intelligence is also beginning to play a greater role in diagnostics, supporting clinicians in identifying conditions earlier and improving decision-making.
“AI now supports our radiology and pathology teams with second-read diagnostics, which catches edge cases earlier,” Akbar noted.
The organisation has also expanded telehealth services, giving patients access to specialist consultations remotely and ensuring care remains available at all times. “Our telehealth platform lets patients consult specialists from home — useful in everyday life, essential during a crisis,” he said.
Behind the scenes, digital systems are also helping healthcare facilities manage resources more effectively. “We monitor bed occupancy, staffing, and supply levels in near real-time. If one facility is running hot, we can route patients or resources to balance the load,” he explained. “That work is not glamorous, but it is the difference between a system that holds and one that buckles.”
Despite the growing role of technology, Akbar emphasises that digital transformation must ultimately serve patients rather than simply showcase innovation.
“My father’s view was always that technology should serve the patient, not impress the visitor. We try to keep that filter on every digital decision we make.”
Balancing Today’s Needs with Tomorrow’s Investments
Rather than treating future growth as a separate initiative, Thumbay Group views long-term investment as a continuous process that supports both current and future healthcare needs.
“This is the question I think most about,” Akbar admitted. “Patients walking in today need our full attention, not a mere promise about what we will build by 2030.”
“Every hospital expansion, every new specialty centre, every cohort of doctors graduating from Gulf Medical University is, in a sense, capacity for the patient who has not walked in yet,” he said.
The group continues to invest in key growth areas including oncology, advanced cardiac care, and women’s and children’s health, sectors where demand is increasing rapidly across the region.
At the same time, Akbar believes healthcare quality is often defined by improvements that patients directly experience. “We keep reinvesting in what is already working,” he said. “Better imaging equipment. Shorter wait times. More nurses per bed. The unglamorous things that patients actually feel.”
The Power of Collaboration
According to Akbar, one of the defining strengths of the UAE healthcare system is its collaborative approach between public and private sector stakeholders.
“The UAE’s healthcare strength is no accident,” he said. “It comes from a deliberate model where government sets the vision and private operators help deliver it at scale.”
The pandemic highlighted the effectiveness of this model, with healthcare providers and government entities working together to ensure widespread testing, treatment and vaccination access.
“We saw this play out clearly during Covid-19, when Thumbay hospitals partnered with federal and emirate-level authorities for testing, treatment, and vaccination at a pace very few countries matched,” he said.
It is little surprise then that Gulf Medical University with its connectedness and support has grown to be the Number One Private Medical University in the Gulf region.
Today, collaboration extends well beyond crisis management. Thumbay Group works closely with regulators, educational institutions and public-sector organisations on healthcare quality, workforce development and specialised patient care pathways.
“Resilience is not built by any single hospital or ministry,” Akbar noted. “It is the product of many actors moving in the same direction. The UAE has got that formula right, and we are proud to be one of the contributors.”
Supporting Physical and Mental Wellbeing
Healthcare resilience also extends beyond hospitals and clinical treatment.
Akbar believes healthcare systems must increasingly address both physical and mental wellbeing, particularly during periods of uncertainty. “Healthcare systems spent decades treating mental health as a separate corridor — quieter, less funded, less visible,” he said. “That has to change, and in the UAE it is changing fast.”
At Thumbay Group, psychiatry and counselling services have been integrated into general hospital settings, while primary care physicians are trained to identify early signs of anxiety and depression during routine consultations.
“By the time someone seeks specialist help, the spiral is often well underway,” he explained.
The organisation also continues to invest in preventive healthcare through its Body & Soul wellness centres, focusing on chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension that represent significant long-term health challenges across the region.
In parallel, community outreach programmes, school initiatives and multilingual awareness campaigns aim to improve access to mental health support across the UAE’s diverse population.
“The UAE is genuinely multicultural, and care has to meet people where they are, in the language they think in,” Akbar said.