Browne Jacobson contributes to white paper exploring UK-UAE collaboration in healthcare AI adoption

A new report that aims to foster closer working between Britain and the United Arab Emirates on integrating artificial intelligence into healthcare has been published with input from Browne Jacobson.

The UAE-UK Business Council’s latest white paper, Opportunities for UK-UAE Collaboration in AI in Healthcare, makes recommendations on how policymakers, businesses, healthcare practitioners and academics in both countries can work together to optimise data for accelerating innovation, particularly in precision medicine and genomics.

Gerard Hanratty, Head of Health and Life Sciences at the UK and Ireland law firm, contributed to a section on AI and healthcare data.

Using his expertise in public law and regulatory issues in health and life sciences, Gerard advised on existing barriers to optimising AI in healthcare, including a lack of harmonised data standards or secure data-sharing agreements, fragmented access to anonymised patient data, and an absence of coherent and interoperable frameworks.

Gerard said: “Data holds the key to addressing many of the challenges faced by state-based healthcare systems like the NHS, such as driving the shift from curing to preventing disease, but only if harnessed in the right way.

“The UK must develop a health data strategy and regulatory frameworks that enables AI to be seamlessly integrated into emerging technologies deployed in healthcare. These should be designed in such a way that they don’t lag behind technological development and can instead support more advanced testing and diagnostics, predictive analytics and precision medicine.

“Collaborating with our international partners is integral to realising the full potential of AI by ensuring healthcare data can be shared across borders for research and development of new medicines, treatments and technologies.

“Achieving this will not only improve patient care, but it will make the UK healthcare market a magnet for inward investment from innovators in countries like the UAE, where there is huge demand to access the NHS for mutual benefits.

“As a firm committed to being at the forefront of tackling society’s biggest issues, and collaborating with others that share this ambition, we’re excited about the potential impact a report like this can have in positively influencing international healthcare policy. Our contribution to this report follows hot on the heels of our white paper, Advancing Inward Investment into the UK Health Sector, published in partnership with Healthcare World.” 

The Opportunities for UK-UAE Collaboration in AI in Healthcare report analyses both the UAE and UK’s existing approaches to AI adoption in healthcare, including in precision medicine and genomics, and makes seven recommendations for policymakers in both countries.

These include exploration of a bilateral data adequacy framework to support data-driven AI healthcare innovation, as well as knowledge sharing agreements to strengthen interoperability frameworks, plug AI skills gaps, and increase awareness on the role of AI in wellbeing and longevity.

Other recommendations promote collaboration on developing global standards for responsible and inclusive AI use, twinning initiatives for digital health testbeds and genomic innovation partnerships, and a mentorship network to connect start-ups with UK and UAE experts in genomics, AI, healthcare systems and regulatory pathways.

Bradley Jones, Executive Director of the UAE-UK Business Council, said: “The transformative impact of AI will arguably be felt more in the healthcare sector than any other industry. The maturity and breadth of the UK’s healthcare sector, and the significant amount of investment that has gone into life sciences in recent years, makes the UK an attractive and like-minded commercial partner for the UAE.

“Both countries face similar challenges, such as the need to design the optimal data, regulatory and ethical environment to enable AI to deliver its true potential, without compromising privacy or stifling innovation and competition.

“By leveraging their complementary strengths – the UK’s agile regulatory frameworks and leading academic research, and the UAE’s commitment to a future-focused health ecosystem through innovation and investment – both countries will be able to forge an ambitious new partnership in enabling AI to transform the healthcare sector.”

This is the latest white paper by the UAE-UK Business Council, a thought leadership forum that brings together senior business leaders, entrepreneurs, academics, government representatives and other stakeholders from both countries to help resolve barriers to trade and investment between the UAE and UK.

The UAE is the UK’s 19^th biggest trading partner and its 12^th largest export market. The trade and investment relationship is worth £23.8bn per year.

Last year, the Council published another report, which Browne Jacobson also contributed to, exploring opportunities for collaboration between the countries specifically in cancer care.

To read Opportunities for UK-UAE Collaboration in AI in Healthcare, click here.