Dubai Health

Dubai Health has earned Epic Gold Star Configuration Level 10 for the second consecutive year for its Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, reflecting its commitment to leveraging digital transformation to elevate the patient experience.

The recognition maintains Dubai Health’s position among only 5% of healthcare institutions worldwide to achieve this level of system configuration. It also highlights Dubai Health's ongoing focus on digital innovation as an integrated academic health system, supporting high-quality, safe care, while demonstrating how easier access to health information for healthcare professionals contributes to more seamless patient care and a more connected healthcare experience.

Dubai Health attained 94% of Epic's Gold Star configuration criteria, achieving one of the highest levels of optimization for the world's leading electronic health record (EHR) platform. It also achieved an 82% Epic Gold Star "In Use" score, driven by the successful adoption of advanced Epic capabilities across its clinical and operational teams. This accomplishment was announced during Epic's UGM 2026 event in Wisconsin, USA, where Dubai Health was acknowledged among leading healthcare institutions worldwide for Epic system utilization.

Epic is a leading electronic health record (EHR) system that enables healthcare organizations to manage patient health information, coordinate care, and support clinical and operational processes. 
With more than 700 healthcare institutions worldwide using Epic, the Gold Star program is widely recognized as a global benchmark for how effectively healthcare organizations configure, optimize, and maximize the value of their electronic health record systems to improve care delivery and operational performance. Level 10 represents the program’s highest distinction, recognizing institutions for their advanced adoption of the system’s Gold Star features.

Atif Albraiki, Chief Digital and AI Officer at Dubai Health, said: “This recognition reflects our ongoing efforts to ensure that technology meaningfully supports our patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. Earning Epic Gold Star Level 10 for the second year demonstrates how we optimize our digital ecosystem to enable safer, smarter, and more connected care.”


He added: “This places us among leading healthcare institutions globally in leveraging the capabilities of electronic health records, while encouraging us to continue developing our digital ecosystem to improve the patient experience across the care journey.”

As part of its broader digital transformation journey and in alignment with its AI strategy, Dubai Health is expanding the use of innovative Epic capabilities that improve the patient experience.

Among these, the Dubai Health app offers patients admitted to the hospital and those receiving emergency care a personalized experience with secure access to health information throughout their stay, including daily schedules, medications, educational resources, and communication with their care team. The app helps patients remain informed, engaged, and actively involved in their care journey while providing access to digital tools they can continue using after discharge.

Another capability is Fast Pass, a feature that automatically offers earlier appointments to patients when cancellations become available, helping reduce waiting times, improve access to care, optimize clinic schedules, and minimize the need for manual appointment coordination. 

Dubai Health also utilizes Generative AI Summaries, enabling clinicians to review a patient's medical history, recent care activities, and admission details through concise AI-generated summaries. By surfacing key clinical information within their existing workflow, the feature supports more informed decision-making and allows clinicians to dedicate more time to patient care.

Dubai Health has announced that it has earned Joint Commission International (JCI) enterprise accreditation across its integrated academic health system, recognizing its commitment to the highest international standards of healthcare quality across its institutional and academic operations, as well as its hospitals, contributing to an elevated patient experience.

Dubai Health has become the first integrated academic health system in the UAE to earn this accreditation, widely regarded as a global benchmark for healthcare quality and patient safety. The accreditation follows a rigorous evaluation by JCI, which assessed Dubai Health's central administrative functions against 149 standards, achieving 100% compliance. Its medical education and hospital operations also demonstrated exceptional performance, attaining 99.7% compliance rate across 1,170 standards.

At the institutional level, the assessment covered quality and performance improvement, governance and leadership, as well as system alignment and integration. At the academic and hospital levels, the evaluation assessed standards related to patient-centred care, patient safety, medical education and professional training, reflecting the maturity of Dubai Health's model and the seamless integration of care, learning and discovery. 

This also marks the first time that all five Dubai Health hospitals; Rashid Hospital, Dubai Hospital, Hatta Hospital, Latifa Hospital, and Al Jalila Children's Hospital, have undergone the JCI Academic Medical Center (AMC) accreditation survey simultaneously, successfully achieving accreditation. 

This achievement builds on the five hospitals’ continued commitment to quality and patient safety, having previously received JCI accreditation over the years.

Dr. Amer Sharif, CEO of Dubai Health and President of Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU) said: "As the first integrated academic health system in the UAE to receive JCI enterprise accreditation, we are proud to see our collective efforts acknowledged across our hospitals, academic and institutional operations. This milestone reinforces our commitment to continuous improvement and to creating better experiences and outcomes for the patients and communities we serve."
He added: "I extend my sincere appreciation to all our teams whose dedication made this possible. This success represents another step in our journey to advance health for humanity and further position Dubai and the UAE at the forefront of healthcare quality and institutional excellence."

Dr. Hanan Al Suwaidi, Deputy CEO and Chief Academic Officer of Dubai Health and Provost of MBRU, said: "Achieving JCI AMC accreditation reflects how closely medical education and healthcare delivery are connected across Dubai Health. It also highlights the quality of our education and clinical training programs, and our academic approach that brings together care, learning, and discovery. This integration enables us to nurture future healthcare professionals who contribute to advancing the standards of care."

Global Benchmark

Dr. Entesar Al Hammadi, Chair of Patient Safety and Quality at Dubai Health, said: "At Dubai Health, quality and patient safety are embedded in everything we do. Achieving internationally recognized accreditations reflects our ongoing focus on continuous improvement across our institutional, academic, and clinical operations. It also reinforces our ability to deliver consistent, safe care and ensure our healthcare system remains aligned with global best practices."

She added: "We pursued JCI accreditation because it is recognized globally as a benchmark for quality and patient safety. The accreditation process helped align practices across our healthcare and academic facilities and provided valuable opportunities to benchmark our performance against international standards. This achievement reflects our culture of continuous improvement and supports our mission to advance patient safety practices, in line with our “Patient First" promise.”

The Gold Seal of Approval 

JCI is one of the world's leading healthcare accreditation bodies. Its Gold Seal of Approval® is widely recognized as a symbol of excellence in healthcare quality and patient safety.
JCI accreditation involves a rigorous evaluation process that assesses how healthcare organizations deliver care, ensure patient safety, and continuously improve their services. Its standards help create safer healthcare environments, promote consistency in care delivery, support better patient outcomes, and elevates patient experience across healthcare systems.

For medical students, the journey to becoming a physician extends far beyond the classroom. It is shaped by experiences that broaden their perspectives and deepen their understanding of healthcare in diverse settings. Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU) is the heart of Dubai Health, enabling learning and discovery to advance health for humanity. Its Summer Scholars Program offers students placements in research laboratories, clinical observerships, and community service initiatives across leading medical and academic
institutions across the UAE and abroad. 

Professor Rasha Buhumaid, Dean of the College of Medicine and Graduate Medical Education at MBRU, said: “The Summer Scholars Program reflects MBRU's commitment to preparing graduates who are ready to contribute to healthcare in the UAE and internationally. Through these placements, our students gain early exposure to different health systems, research projects, and medical innovations. They return with new skills and professional networks that enrich their studies at MBRU and, ultimately, the care they will provide to patients."

This summer, MBRU students traveled to leading institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania[RB2.1] [RB3.1]in the United States, McGill University in Canada, and Université Paris Cité in France. Although each placement differed in setting and scope, every experience broadened students’ perspective on healthcare and research beyond the UAE.

Exploring Neurosurgery at an Ivy League

For Krish Bhatia, the opportunity to join the Department of Neurosurgery at Penn Medicine for four weeks offered experience across surgical, clinical, and research domains.

Bhatia said: "I visited the operating theater and observed multiple functional and structural neurosurgeries. A particular neurosurgery that comes to mind is the bilateral deep brain stimulation, where the surgeon precisely maneuvers through the complex anatomy of the brain and electrically stimulates a specific nucleus to control tremors in patients with Parkinson's and essential tremor. What was remarkable to see is that these patients are awake during the procedure, and in real time, there is an immediate effect."

Bhatia also shadowed physicians in patient history-taking, neurological and physical examinations, and the presentation of findings. He participated in a crash course in neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania’s Restore Lab, learning how to analyze neural signals across different frequency bands.

He added: "This was an unforgettable experience for me. I really want to pursue neurosurgery and become a compassionate, ambitious, and competent neurosurgeon.”

AI and Medicine in Paris

Abdullah Al Dhaheri, Maha Alramahi, and Hannah-Grace Hamouda were competitively selected to represent MBRU at the Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation in Medicine Summer School hosted by Université Paris Cité Medical School as part of the International Innovation Camp.

The two-week program brought together students from diverse disciplines to examine how AI is applied across multiple specialties, including radiology, pediatrics, and emergency medicine. Alongside an international cohort, the students explored how AI can support clinical decision-making and improve patient outcomes. Hannah-Grace noted the significance of gaining exposure to AI and precision medicine early in her medical education. "We came back to Dubai not only with new knowledge but with a much broader understanding of the kind of doctors we hope to become," she said.

Reflecting on the experience, Abdullah Al Dhaheri noted that artificial intelligence helps support physicians and reduce time spent on administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on patient care. He emphasized the importance of human oversight in the use of AI in medical practice, verifying the accuracy of its outputs, and adhering to patient data protection and information privacy standards.

Clinical Care and Community Service in the U.S. Capital Region

Saud Mahmoud spent two weeks at Virginia University of Integrative Medicine in the United States as part of the program, where he was introduced to integrative approaches to patient care[RB4.1]. He also visited Georgetown University and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he observed how physicians and students work together to deliver healthcare.

While in the U.S. capital region, he volunteered with free community acupuncture clinics offered through Bread for the City, which supports low-income residents of Washington, D.C., and Inova Health System’s Life with Cancer program, which supports people affected by cancer.[RB5.1]

Mapping the Road to Residency in Canada

Moza Al Janahi spent her summer at McGill University in Canada, where she learned about the medical residency pathway in Canada, including what is expected of international medical graduates. The program enabled her to connect with graduates of MBRU. Reflecting on the program, Al Janahi said, “It was especially meaningful to connect with MBRU graduates thriving beyond the university and the UAE. Hearing firsthand about their experiences as residents at McGill, their daily lives in Montreal, and the steps that brought them there made the pathway feel much more tangible and achievable.”