Your health is your wealth: How Qatar invests in well-being

euronews (in English)

In this episode of Qatar 365, we do a pulse check on how well Qatar is spurring innovation in its healthcare system.

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - Ayurveda is just not a massage.

00:05 It's like a way of life.

00:07 - My vision is that if you close your eyes,

00:09 you should be surprised that you are talking

00:11 to an algorithm.

00:11 - Hello and welcome to Qatar 365.

00:18 I'm Laila Humaira and on this episode,

00:21 we do a pulse check on how well Qatar is spurring innovation

00:25 in its healthcare system.

00:27 And the diagnosis is positive.

00:30 So far, more than $6 billion has been injected

00:33 into the industry.

00:34 And that includes supporting startups that are tapping

00:37 into the latest technology to make healthcare

00:40 more accessible to all.

00:42 I got to meet one company that's changing the way

00:46 we receive medical attention.

00:48 This is Aave, an all-in-one healthcare application

00:54 incubated at the Qatar Science and Technology Park.

00:57 The app was launched by a Qatari startup in 2017.

01:01 Today, it's used by more than 1.2 million people

01:05 in 175 countries.

01:08 Powered by artificial intelligence,

01:10 Aave has a self-diagnosed function,

01:13 connects users to doctors all over the world,

01:15 and is also an online pharmacist.

01:18 - Aave is about providing any patient

01:21 with a tailored health journey.

01:24 So you feel unwell, you can present your complaint to Aave.

01:27 Based on that complaint, Aave forms a medical hypothesis.

01:31 Based on that hypothesis, Aave starts conversing with you

01:35 for around two minutes, more or less on average,

01:37 before he provides you with a differential diagnosis.

01:41 - It means that as long as a person has a smartphone,

01:44 if they're not feeling well,

01:45 they can get access to medical guidance

01:47 without ever having to step out of the house.

01:50 Some would say Aave is eliminating the need

01:53 for physical clinics, but the company says

01:55 it's revolutionizing healthcare with just a few swipes.

01:59 - Aave can match your case with the most suitable doctor

02:04 for the case and make the connection

02:06 between you as a patient and the doctor.

02:09 Prescribe medicine to you.

02:11 It's the full journey from A to Z.

02:13 - Aave is just one of many success stories

02:16 to come out of QSTP's innovation and incubation program.

02:21 The organization has helped put many ideas

02:24 and products to market by supporting startups

02:27 and young entrepreneurs.

02:28 - Starting from the idea formation

02:30 to establishing their companies,

02:32 to building their product,

02:34 all the way to commercializing and scaling up.

02:37 For that, we put together several programs,

02:42 starting with the incubation to establish your company,

02:45 the accelerator to support you in your capacity building

02:49 and your mentoring requirements,

02:52 and finally a venture capital fund

02:54 to support your financial needs.

02:56 - From Aave's beginnings as a startup

02:59 to now being one of the key member companies under QSTP,

03:03 the partnership continues,

03:05 and the next step is further scaling up its business.

03:08 - We've been training since last summer a language model

03:12 that allows people to express their complaints

03:16 about their health naturally to Aave.

03:19 So the idea is that you can say,

03:21 "Hey Aave, I am having a headache today.

03:24 "Can you tell me why?"

03:26 Speech, in speech.

03:28 Aave is gonna translate that speech into text.

03:31 Then Aave is gonna do a semantic analysis on the text

03:35 that predicts certain symptoms out of that text

03:38 and then feed that to the AI diagnostic model.

03:41 - And when Aave rolls out these new functions,

03:44 a world where artificial intelligence and healthcare

03:46 merges into a seamless service is far closer than we think.

03:51 - My vision is that if you close your eyes

03:53 and talk to Aave,

03:55 and then by the end of the session, you open your eyes,

03:57 you should be surprised

03:58 that you are talking to an algorithm.

04:00 - Now let's take a deep dive all the way down to ourselves.

04:08 So much of who we are lies in the makeup of our DNA.

04:12 Can some diseases be prevented

04:14 just by learning more about our genetics

04:16 and how we came to be?

04:18 Well, I've come here to Sidra Medicine

04:19 to meet Dr. Sarah Tomei,

04:21 who heads the Omics Core Research Lab

04:23 to find out more about genetics research.

04:26 Dr. Tomei, thank you so much

04:30 for having us today in your lab.

04:32 The study of human DNA is so important to understanding

04:36 and ultimately diagnosing human diseases.

04:39 Knowing this, Katar and Sidra Medicine

04:41 have invested so much in this field.

04:43 How has this investment impacted your work?

04:46 - So the last couple of decades,

04:48 I've seen a rapid increase of diversity

04:52 and in the number of genomic technologies.

04:55 In 2003, the first draft of the human genome was released

04:59 with the completion of the Human Genome Project.

05:01 This initial draft was however only nearly complete,

05:06 accounting for about 92% of the human genome,

05:10 but 8% of the human genome

05:12 was at that time not available.

05:14 However, with the improvement in the technologies,

05:17 a lot of other platforms came on the market,

05:20 including the long-read sequencing platform.

05:23 Those are the platform we have available at Sidra.

05:25 So this means that we now know

05:27 the complete sequence of the human genome.

05:29 We know the exact sequence of the 3 billion base pairs

05:33 across 23 chromosomes of the human genome.

05:36 So the human genome is now gapless.

05:38 And this is very valuable

05:39 because this information can also help understanding

05:42 how human genomes vary

05:45 and also to understand how the newly discovered variants

05:49 influence health and diseases.

05:51 - You're also involved in a collaboration

05:53 with the archaeological team at Qatar Museums.

05:56 Can you tell us more about this initiative

05:58 and what you hope to achieve?

06:00 - These projects aim at providing a better understanding

06:03 of the prehistoric society living in Qatar.

06:06 So the Middle East and Qatar

06:08 lie at the crossroads of the old world,

06:10 where Africa, Europe, and Asia meet.

06:12 Due to this geographical location,

06:15 Middle East and Qatar has played a central role

06:17 in human evolution,

06:19 being the passageway for migration between Africa and Asia.

06:23 What we aim in this project is to fill this knowledge gap

06:26 and to provide more information

06:28 about the prehistoric society

06:30 that were living in this region,

06:32 and also to infer evolutionary processes of human.

06:36 - Now, Dr. Toume, you work with a lot of high-tech equipment

06:40 in this lab.

06:41 Do you mind showing us around?

06:42 - Yeah, sure, let's go.

06:43 So one of the technology I'm gonna show you here now

06:50 is called BioNano and provides optical genome mapping.

06:55 The instruments we have in place is called SAFIRE,

06:58 and this is what you see here.

07:01 And this technology is quite useful

07:03 to detect large structural variations

07:06 that are missed by other sequencing technologies.

07:09 Now, large structural variations are responsible

07:11 for many diseases,

07:12 including developmental disorders and cancer.

07:16 So it is very important that we identify

07:19 and detect large genomic variations, structural variations.

07:23 The nanochannel structure included in the SAFIRE chip

07:28 that allow the linearization of DNA molecules.

07:31 And this is important because when we run the DNA,

07:35 we can actually see single DNA molecules.

07:38 And this is what I'm gonna show you now.

07:40 So what you see here, in fact, are single molecules of DNA.

07:45 Those are not sequences,

07:46 where the backbone is stained in blue

07:50 with an intercalating dye,

07:52 and the green dots are the label.

07:55 This might be indicative of structural variation.

07:58 - Now, startups aren't the only ones

08:02 changing the face of modern medicine.

08:04 Qatar has seen a rise in demand and use

08:07 of complementary and alternative therapies.

08:10 More people are supplementing with holistic treatments

08:13 to work alongside traditional medicines.

08:16 Humera Chaudhry has been looking

08:17 at some of those alternatives.

08:19 - Let's look at your posture today.

08:23 Can you stand up right in front of the mirror?

08:25 And I'm gonna compare and see your shoulders.

08:28 - If you regularly work out, sit at a desk,

08:31 enjoy watching films or drive,

08:33 you may benefit from chiropractic treatment.

08:36 - Can you come turn around, sit down here, please,

08:38 facing the mirror.

08:39 - Barbar Raheel is a personal trainer

08:41 and works out regularly.

08:43 He hadn't seen a chiropractor before,

08:45 and despite his initial reservations,

08:48 he said the treatment itself isn't painful.

08:51 - After my initial appointment with Dr. Murthy,

08:53 I saw a great difference in my balance.

08:56 My shoulders were a lot more balanced,

08:57 and then when I went to train that week,

09:00 I felt there was no discomfort in my shoulder at all.

09:02 So there was a huge difference

09:03 just after my first appointment.

09:05 - Chiropractic treatments are popular alternatives

09:08 to traditional medicine,

09:09 and it's said they have few, if any, side effects.

09:13 Manually manipulating bone alignment

09:15 has proven to reduce symptoms and ease chronic pain.

09:20 Complementary and alternative medicine

09:22 is becoming more prominent around the world,

09:25 particularly in the Gulf region.

09:27 Dr. Majdi Aboudaya has been treating patients

09:31 for more than 15 years.

09:32 He decided to become a chiropractor

09:35 after being successfully treated for recurring neck pain.

09:38 - Once I received my first chiropractic adjustment

09:40 for my neck, I can't recall since then,

09:43 and maybe I got sore throat three or four times in my life.

09:47 So that was enough evidence for me

09:48 about the scientific part of chiropractic,

09:51 and I decided to be a doctor of chiropractic then.

09:54 - As well as adjusting the spine,

09:56 chiropractic treatments are beneficial

09:58 for a number of health conditions and injuries.

10:01 But Dr. Majdi warns, before making an appointment,

10:04 it's important to find a registered specialist.

10:08 - Six hours of training does not qualify you

10:10 to be a doctor of chiropractic.

10:12 So do your due diligence.

10:15 Make sure you know the person

10:16 who's gonna provide you the adjustment.

10:18 That's very important.

10:19 Then your expectation is,

10:21 don't expect a treatment on your first visit.

10:25 - Another popular alternative treatment

10:27 to traditional medicine is the ancient Indian holistic

10:30 approach known as Ayurveda.

10:32 The remedy center in Duhail is the country's first

10:36 government approved facility,

10:38 and Reshmi Vijay Kumar is the first doctor

10:40 to be licensed in Qatar.

10:42 - We have treatments for many different type

10:44 of health issues, and all these health issues

10:47 can be dealt in a natural and holistic way,

10:50 and take off the root cause of the problem.

10:53 Like, we take it out of the body rather than suppressing it.

10:56 - The therapists at Remedy are trained in Kerala,

10:59 while the medicines and equipment are imported

11:01 from around India for an authentic, traditional experience.

11:06 But it's not all candles and oils.

11:08 - Ayurveda is just not a massage

11:10 or something that makes you feel good.

11:13 It's really not a spa treatment.

11:15 It's very, very, there is more to it.

11:17 It's like a way of life.

11:19 - Bridging the gap between traditional

11:20 and complementary medicine,

11:22 Ayurvedic and chiropractic therapies are designed

11:25 to help relieve pain and balance the body.

11:28 The perfect antidote for active lifestyles.

11:31 From creating a thriving startup ecosystem

11:37 to being at the forefront of genetics research,

11:40 Qatar is always looking to pump fresh ideas

11:43 into a rapidly changing healthcare industry.

11:46 And that's all the time we have on this episode.

11:48 For more, check out Euronews.com

11:50 and connect with us through our hashtag.

11:52 Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time

11:55 on Qatar365.

11:57 (upbeat music)

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