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By Mahee Mustafa
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Founded in 1987, Aster DM Healthcare has grown into one of the Gulf region's largest integrated health care providers. Today, the organization delivers comprehensive care across the continuum—from primary and secondary to tertiary and quaternary services—through a network of 488 facilities spanning hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, laboratories and digital health platforms, powered by more than 18,000 dedicated employees.
Aster has evolved from a hospital operator into a broader health care platform across the GCC. How would you define the role Aster plays in the region today?
For nearly four decades, Aster has grown with this region. We began in the UAE, which remains our largest and most mature footprint, but today we have a broader presence across the GCC.
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We no longer look at health care as a single hospital visit, but as a connected journey. Our clinics, pharmacies, hospitals and digital platforms are designed to work together so patients can move between different levels of care. The myAster app, launched almost four years ago, supports much of that journey. Almost everything short of surgery can now be managed through the platform, while data from wearables such as Oura Ring, Fitbit, Whoop and Apple Watch can be connected with doctors and care teams. The question is how we help people stay healthier for longer and avoid unnecessary hospitalization. In a region where 20 to 30 percent of the population is living with obesity, diabetes or hypertension, moving from episodic to preventive care is increasingly important.
What does your integrated model allow you to do that a standalone hospital cannot?
A standalone hospital typically meets a patient at the moment of need—when there is pain, a diagnosis to make, a procedure to perform or an acute episode to manage. An integrated model allows us to move earlier in the patient journey, with prevention, early detection and continuity of care. That can improve outcomes and also reduce costs for payers, because once a patient reaches hospitalization, the complexity and expense of care increase significantly.
A patient’s needs evolve across their lifetime, from vaccinations and fertility to sports injuries, chronic-disease management and advanced interventions. Because we serve 17 million patients across the GCC and 8 million in India, we can use population-level data to identify patterns. Predictive analysis can show, for example, when a diabetic patient is coming in only once a year for blood work when they should be monitored three or four times. It allows us to identify risk and intervene before illness becomes a hospital admission. Greater transparency around outcomes, quality and patient experience can also create clearer benchmarks and accountability. It gives patients more evidence on which to base decisions, rather than relying primarily on marketing or brand perception.
You recently announced a 1 billion dirham investment program in the UAE. What capabilities are you trying to build through that commitment?
Today, we operate 16 hospitals across the GCC with more than 1,600 beds. In the immediate term, we are adding another 350 beds, with plans for a further 300–500 beds in Saudi Arabia. But the investment is not only about capacity. We are expanding quaternary care in areas including robotics, organ transplantation, advanced oncology and complex cardiac sciences. These are specialized, capital-intensive services that require both infrastructure and clinical expertise.
The pandemic changed health care patterns in the region because international travel came to a standstill and more patients received complex care closer to home. That reinforced the case for investing in higher-acuity services across the GCC. Medical travel was once associated largely with aesthetics, dentistry and fertility treatments, but we are now seeing demand for more complex procedures, including from patients in Africa, the Middle East and neighboring markets. That has made quaternary care a greater investment priority, both to meet growing demand within the GCC and to serve patients who travel to the region for treatment.
Innovation in health care can mean everything from advanced clinical technology to a different model of care delivery. How does Aster decide where to place its bets?
One area we are investing in is rehabilitation. After a stroke or cardiac event, rehabilitation can be as important as the immediate lifesaving intervention, yet there is a shortage of rehabilitation beds globally and regionally. Advances in robotic rehabilitation and brain-computer interface technologies could also help patients rebuild lost motor functions, so this is an area we are watching closely.
The challenge with innovation is deciding where to focus. We look first at whether an investment can meaningfully improve patient outcomes, and whether we have the clinical expertise, talent and long-term commitment to build that capability. Clinicians play a central role in those decisions. We have also invested nearly AED 100 million in myAster as a digital health platform. The aim is to use technology where it can improve access, continuity and the delivery of care, rather than treating innovation as an end in itself. We also assess whether we have the expertise and resources to sustain a new capability over the long term.
AI is now being discussed across almost every part of health care. Where is it already creating the greatest practical impact for Aster and its patients?
There are two areas where AI is making the biggest difference. From a patient-facing perspective, it can make access to care faster, help patients interpret diagnostic information earlier and reduce the time they spend navigating the health care system.
At the back end, AI can improve clinical efficiency and diagnostic quality. Modern MRI and ultrasound systems can analyze very large numbers of scans and help identify subtle changes that a clinician might miss. AI can also flag potential adverse drug interactions, which is particularly useful for older patients taking multiple medications. The goal is not to replace doctors, but to extend their ability to process information and make decisions.
Looking across health care more broadly, where do you think the sector has advanced most meaningfully, and where does it still need to do better?
One area that still needs more focus is patient counseling. We are living through an epidemic of lifestyle diseases, and there is limited value in patients knowing their numbers if they are not equipped to change their daily habits. Patients now have access to data from gut microbiome testing, DNA sequencing, genomics and other biomarkers, but the volume of information can be confusing. The challenge is translating that information into small, actionable and sustainable lifestyle changes.
I believe the future lies in combining artificial intelligence with human intelligence. Technology can process information at scale, but empathy, context and judgment remain human. The UAE, for example, is making progress in creating unified national health records, giving clinicians a more complete view of a patient’s medical history. The value comes when clinicians use that information to look beyond the immediate diagnosis, connect patterns over time and support a person’s long-term health rather than treating isolated episodes of illness.
This article has been paid for by a third party. The views and opinions expressed are not those of Newsweek and are not an endorsement of the products, services or persons mentioned.
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