Department of Health and Malaffi use AI to predict patients’ future risk of disease in Abu Dhabi

11 Aug, 2022:

Malaffi, the region’s first Health Information Exchange (HIE) platform, a strategic initiative of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DOH), has added a Patient Risk Profile as a new functionality available to all doctors that are authorised to access the platform. The functionality predicts the level of risk for an individual patient to develop certain chronic diseases or suffer an acute event. The technology behind Malaffi’s risk management solution uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and machine learning algorithms, to build predictive risk models based on the available Emirate’s population-level demographic and clinical data in Malaffi.

Abu Dhabi continues to cement its position as a leading global destination in the healthcare sector, and an incubator for innovation in life sciences and digital health in the region. The Emirate is moving forward towards attracting and developing the latest innovations within these areas to adapt the highest standards of health and safety for communities, and to raise its position as an attractive destination for investors and specialised healthcare professionals.

In the recent past, predictive models have been in use in several industries and in healthcare predictive analytics support better-informed clinical decision-making and to enable the provision of better-quality healthcare and patient outcomes.

The Malaffi Patient Risk Profile displays risk scores for each patient against a list of prevalent chronic conditions such as diabetes, congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic kidney disease (CKD), hypertension; and acute events such as a heart attack, stroke, and others*. Individual risk scores help clinicians make informed decisions and interventions to manage and prevent individuals from developing potential diseases or being admitted to a hospital.

To identify patients at risk, the solution currently utilises clinical data such as diagnoses, chronic conditions and laboratory results. To further improve the accuracy, medication information will be added to the model in future releases. Malaffi connects almost the entire sector in Abu Dhabi, including all hospitals and 2,000 public and private healthcare facilities, and provides access to more than 45,000 authorised users to 900 million patient records for more than 7 million patients, 
according to the highest standards of privacy and information security                          

H.E. Dr. Jamal Mohammed Al Kaabi, Undersecretary of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi said: We are committed to developing a healthcare ecosystem that has become among the leading and innovative systems in the world through deploying the latest artificial intelligence digital technologies to improve the quality of healthcare for the residents of Abu Dhabi and the region. Such innovation is pivotal to moving to a preventive-based healthcare approach that will help the transition to value-based care whilst achieving our vision of a healthy Abu Dhabi.”

Robert Denson, Acting CEO Malaffi discussed the impact of the new functionality: “We continually strive to improve and expand Malaffi as a platform to serve the needs of the healthcare professionals and patients in Abu Dhabi, while supporting the government’s digital transformation of healthcare. Having connected almost all healthcare facilities, we can now maximise the clinical big data and the population risk platform that is already available to the DOH to deliver further value to the Malaffi users. We are proud to be one of the few HIEs in the world to extend such functionality to the clinicians through the Provider Portal. This will empower providers with actionable insights to improve the health of their patients by proactively and preventively addressing their health needs.”

Dr Bakr Saadoon Ismail, Informatics Physician, Health Operations Management, Ambulatory Healthcare Services at Abu Dhabi Health Services (SEHA); Member of the Clinical Advisory Committee of Malaffi explained the importance of the new functionality: “The Malaffi Patient Risk Profile is an exciting and important new development. As a practising physician, this predictive tool will help us efficiently evaluate the risks for patients individually and help inform decisions regarding treatment, medication and advice specific to their profile. The fact that these risk predictions are based on population-level data from across the Emirate combined with a comprehensive record of an individual’s medical encounters and visits to all healthcare facilities, improves the clinical care we provide to our patients.”