The 2012 Arab Health Exhibition & Congress (Dubai, UAE) achieved an estimated 18% increase in visitor numbers, highlighting the ever-increasing importance of the healthcare sector in the Middle East.

The 37th edition of the event, held at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Center (UAE), which was inaugurated by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Finance Minister), hosted more than 300 new exhibitors and numerous country pavilions, with Bulgaria, Hungry, Chile, and Portugal making their debuts. In addition, major delegations also came from China with over 300 participating companies, Germany with over 370 companies, and the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States each participating with 580 companies exhibiting.

Running alongside the exhibition and in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic (OH, USA), 17 conferences provided medical professionals with continuing medical education (CME) credits over the four days of the event. Several new conferences covering topics such as medical education, wound care, biomedical engineering, and mHealth were launched for the first time, joining long-standing conferences such as the pediatrics conference, Medlab, and imaging and diagnostics. Adding to the high profile of the event were the Arab Health Achievement and Innovation Awards, once again awarded to industry leaders and outstanding institutions across the Middle East.

“Each year, the awards are playing an increasing role in improving healthcare standards across the region. The winners were delighted to receive recognition for their work and we are proud to be able to reward industry leaders in this way,” said Simon Page, managing director of life sciences at Informa Exhibitions (Zug, Switzerland), which organized the event. “This year Arab Health has seen groundbreaking news unveiled and many partnerships formed. We look forward to seeing the results and impact on the healthcare industry and the benefits these new initiatives will bring to the care of patients and the community.”

“We have found that the Middle East is very receptive to the services and knowledge offered by the UK Life Sciences industry,” said Lord Darzi , attended the event for the third year running to continue his work in promoting the UK Life Sciences industry and the UK national health service (NHS). “We have been able to make a great deal of progress on building up relationships with the Middle East during Arab Health this year.”

“We had more visitors to our stand during the first day of the exhibition this year than we had in total last year,” concluded Hisham Hour, Senior Vice President of Welch Allyn. “Arab Health 2012 has truly been a success for us, and we couldn't be more pleased.”


 

Guangzhou Jia Yu medical equipment Limited