Asan Medical Center (AMC) said on Thursday that it signed an agreement with Scope Investment, a UAE-based investment company, to build a 65-bed gastrointestinal specialized hospital in Dubai Healthcare City in Dubai, the UAE, in 2026.
The tentatively named Asan GI Hospital-UAE aims to enhance the quality of life for critically-ill patients in the Middle East who previously had to travel to distant countries for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers such as stomach and colon cancer, management of post-liver transplantation, and surgery for morbid obesity.
In particular, the center will also specialize in pediatric gastroenterology, which has been lacking in Dubai.
Under the agreement, AMC will be responsible for the operation and management of the overall healthcare system, including treatment and education, while Scope Investment will lay the foundation for the business.
In the UAE, one in five people suffer from digestive diseases such as acid reflux, ulcerative colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and colorectal cancer has the second highest prevalence rate among all cancers. Additionally, obesity has recently emerged as a serious social problem due to decreased activity from the heat and meat-based eating habits.
This is further supported by statistics that show that the prevalence of obesity in the UAE is twice as high as the global average.
The discussions surrounding the hospital began in 2019 when Spoke Investment proposed to AMC to establish a hospital. After two years of review by AMC, a joint venture agreement was signed in 2021, followed by purchasing land, designing the hospital, and establishing a joint venture.
This marks AMC’s first global hospital and the first integrated gastroenterology hospital in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. It will be built with a gross floor area of 22,150 m² from the second basement to the seventh floor and will have a total of 65 beds, including an intensive care unit.
AMC said that it will also deploy six to seven doctors and four to five nurses at the UAE site.
Additionally, AMC will transfer its medical system and management expertise without any investment and will receive an operating fee, including labor costs and a portion of sales for the next 15 years, with incentives for achievements.
Integrated pre-and post-operative care for liver transplantation will also be provided. As liver transplantation is not yet widely practiced in the Middle East due to medical technology limitations, an integrated service model will be applied, with patients receiving liver transplantation surgery at AMC and pre-and post-operative care at the UAE Anaesthesiology Hospital.
AMC will also endeavor to improve local medical standards by transferring expertise and skills.
Last year, 3,197 UAE patients visited AMC, representing 18 percent of the 17,835 foreign patients who visited the hospital.
"We will strive to improve the quality of life of patients in the UAE and other Middle Eastern countries by treating early-stage cancer with advanced endoscopic treatments such as endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR), as well as leading advanced treatments such as liver transplantation management and morbid obesity surgery," said AMC Professor Choi Jong-woo of Plastic Surgery and head of the Overseas Hospital Business Unit.