In this episode of Qatar 365, we do a pulse check on how well Qatar is spurring innovation in its healthcare system.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Ayurveda is just not a massage.
00:05 It's like a way of life.
00:07 - My vision is that if you close your eyes,
00:09 you should be surprised that you are talking
00:11 to an algorithm.
00:11 - Hello and welcome to Qatar 365.
00:18 I'm Laila Humaira and on this episode,
00:21 we do a pulse check on how well Qatar is spurring innovation
00:25 in its healthcare system.
00:27 And the diagnosis is positive.
00:30 So far, more than $6 billion has been injected
00:33 into the industry.
00:34 And that includes supporting startups that are tapping
00:37 into the latest technology to make healthcare
00:40 more accessible to all.
00:42 I got to meet one company that's changing the way
00:46 we receive medical attention.
00:48 This is Aave, an all-in-one healthcare application
00:54 incubated at the Qatar Science and Technology Park.
00:57 The app was launched by a Qatari startup in 2017.
01:01 Today, it's used by more than 1.2 million people
01:05 in 175 countries.
01:08 Powered by artificial intelligence,
01:10 Aave has a self-diagnosed function,
01:13 connects users to doctors all over the world,
01:15 and is also an online pharmacist.
01:18 - Aave is about providing any patient
01:21 with a tailored health journey.
01:24 So you feel unwell, you can present your complaint to Aave.
01:27 Based on that complaint, Aave forms a medical hypothesis.
01:31 Based on that hypothesis, Aave starts conversing with you
01:35 for around two minutes, more or less on average,
01:37 before he provides you with a differential diagnosis.
01:41 - It means that as long as a person has a smartphone,
01:44 if they're not feeling well,
01:45 they can get access to medical guidance
01:47 without ever having to step out of the house.
01:50 Some would say Aave is eliminating the need
01:53 for physical clinics, but the company says
01:55 it's revolutionizing healthcare with just a few swipes.
01:59 - Aave can match your case with the most suitable doctor
02:04 for the case and make the connection
02:06 between you as a patient and the doctor.
02:09 Prescribe medicine to you.
02:11 It's the full journey from A to Z.
02:13 - Aave is just one of many success stories
02:16 to come out of QSTP's innovation and incubation program.
02:21 The organization has helped put many ideas
02:24 and products to market by supporting startups
02:27 and young entrepreneurs.
02:28 - Starting from the idea formation
02:30 to establishing their companies,
02:32 to building their product,
02:34 all the way to commercializing and scaling up.
02:37 For that, we put together several programs,
02:42 starting with the incubation to establish your company,
02:45 the accelerator to support you in your capacity building
02:49 and your mentoring requirements,
02:52 and finally a venture capital fund
02:54 to support your financial needs.
02:56 - From Aave's beginnings as a startup
02:59 to now being one of the key member companies under QSTP,
03:03 the partnership continues,
03:05 and the next step is further scaling up its business.
03:08 - We've been training since last summer a language model
03:12 that allows people to express their complaints
03:16 about their health naturally to Aave.
03:19 So the idea is that you can say,
03:21 "Hey Aave, I am having a headache today.
03:24 "Can you tell me why?"
03:26 Speech, in speech.
03:28 Aave is gonna translate that speech into text.
03:31 Then Aave is gonna do a semantic analysis on the text
03:35 that predicts certain symptoms out of that text
03:38 and then feed that to the AI diagnostic model.
03:41 - And when Aave rolls out these new functions,
03:44 a world where artificial intelligence and healthcare
03:46 merges into a seamless service is far closer than we think.
03:51 - My vision is that if you close your eyes
03:53 and talk to Aave,
03:55 and then by the end of the session, you open your eyes,
03:57 you should be surprised
03:58 that you are talking to an algorithm.
04:00 - Now let's take a deep dive all the way down to ourselves.
04:08 So much of who we are lies in the makeup of our DNA.
04:12 Can some diseases be prevented
04:14 just by learning more about our genetics
04:16 and how we came to be?
04:18 Well, I've come here to Sidra Medicine
04:19 to meet Dr. Sarah Tomei,
04:21 who heads the Omics Core Research Lab
04:23 to find out more about genetics research.
04:26 Dr. Tomei, thank you so much
04:30 for having us today in your lab.
04:32 The study of human DNA is so important to understanding
04:36 and ultimately diagnosing human diseases.
04:39 Knowing this, Katar and Sidra Medicine
04:41 have invested so much in this field.
04:43 How has this investment impacted your work?
04:46 - So the last couple of decades,
04:48 I've seen a rapid increase of diversity
04:52 and in the number of genomic technologies.
04:55 In 2003, the first draft of the human genome was released
04:59 with the completion of the Human Genome Project.
05:01 This initial draft was however only nearly complete,
05:06 accounting for about 92% of the human genome,
05:10 but 8% of the human genome
05:12 was at that time not available.
05:14 However, with the improvement in the technologies,
05:17 a lot of other platforms came on the market,
05:20 including the long-read sequencing platform.
05:23 Those are the platform we have available at Sidra.
05:25 So this means that we now know
05:27 the complete sequence of the human genome.
05:29 We know the exact sequence of the 3 billion base pairs
05:33 across 23 chromosomes of the human genome.
05:36 So the human genome is now gapless.
05:38 And this is very valuable
05:39 because this information can also help understanding
05:42 how human genomes vary
05:45 and also to understand how the newly discovered variants
05:49 influence health and diseases.
05:51 - You're also involved in a collaboration
05:53 with the archaeological team at Qatar Museums.
05:56 Can you tell us more about this initiative
05:58 and what you hope to achieve?
06:00 - These projects aim at providing a better understanding
06:03 of the prehistoric society living in Qatar.
06:06 So the Middle East and Qatar
06:08 lie at the crossroads of the old world,
06:10 where Africa, Europe, and Asia meet.
06:12 Due to this geographical location,
06:15 Middle East and Qatar has played a central role
06:17 in human evolution,
06:19 being the passageway for migration between Africa and Asia.
06:23 What we aim in this project is to fill this knowledge gap
06:26 and to provide more information
06:28 about the prehistoric society
06:30 that were living in this region,
06:32 and also to infer evolutionary processes of human.
06:36 - Now, Dr. Toume, you work with a lot of high-tech equipment
06:40 in this lab.
06:41 Do you mind showing us around?
06:42 - Yeah, sure, let's go.
06:43 So one of the technology I'm gonna show you here now
06:50 is called BioNano and provides optical genome mapping.
06:55 The instruments we have in place is called SAFIRE,
06:58 and this is what you see here.
07:01 And this technology is quite useful
07:03 to detect large structural variations
07:06 that are missed by other sequencing technologies.
07:09 Now, large structural variations are responsible
07:11 for many diseases,
07:12 including developmental disorders and cancer.
07:16 So it is very important that we identify
07:19 and detect large genomic variations, structural variations.
07:23 The nanochannel structure included in the SAFIRE chip
07:28 that allow the linearization of DNA molecules.
07:31 And this is important because when we run the DNA,
07:35 we can actually see single DNA molecules.
07:38 And this is what I'm gonna show you now.
07:40 So what you see here, in fact, are single molecules of DNA.
07:45 Those are not sequences,
07:46 where the backbone is stained in blue
07:50 with an intercalating dye,
07:52 and the green dots are the label.
07:55 This might be indicative of structural variation.
07:58 - Now, startups aren't the only ones
08:02 changing the face of modern medicine.
08:04 Qatar has seen a rise in demand and use
08:07 of complementary and alternative therapies.
08:10 More people are supplementing with holistic treatments
08:13 to work alongside traditional medicines.
08:16 Humera Chaudhry has been looking
08:17 at some of those alternatives.
08:19 - Let's look at your posture today.
08:23 Can you stand up right in front of the mirror?
08:25 And I'm gonna compare and see your shoulders.
08:28 - If you regularly work out, sit at a desk,
08:31 enjoy watching films or drive,
08:33 you may benefit from chiropractic treatment.
08:36 - Can you come turn around, sit down here, please,
08:38 facing the mirror.
08:39 - Barbar Raheel is a personal trainer
08:41 and works out regularly.
08:43 He hadn't seen a chiropractor before,
08:45 and despite his initial reservations,
08:48 he said the treatment itself isn't painful.
08:51 - After my initial appointment with Dr. Murthy,
08:53 I saw a great difference in my balance.
08:56 My shoulders were a lot more balanced,
08:57 and then when I went to train that week,
09:00 I felt there was no discomfort in my shoulder at all.
09:02 So there was a huge difference
09:03 just after my first appointment.
09:05 - Chiropractic treatments are popular alternatives
09:08 to traditional medicine,
09:09 and it's said they have few, if any, side effects.
09:13 Manually manipulating bone alignment
09:15 has proven to reduce symptoms and ease chronic pain.
09:20 Complementary and alternative medicine
09:22 is becoming more prominent around the world,
09:25 particularly in the Gulf region.
09:27 Dr. Majdi Aboudaya has been treating patients
09:31 for more than 15 years.
09:32 He decided to become a chiropractor
09:35 after being successfully treated for recurring neck pain.
09:38 - Once I received my first chiropractic adjustment
09:40 for my neck, I can't recall since then,
09:43 and maybe I got sore throat three or four times in my life.
09:47 So that was enough evidence for me
09:48 about the scientific part of chiropractic,
09:51 and I decided to be a doctor of chiropractic then.
09:54 - As well as adjusting the spine,
09:56 chiropractic treatments are beneficial
09:58 for a number of health conditions and injuries.
10:01 But Dr. Majdi warns, before making an appointment,
10:04 it's important to find a registered specialist.
10:08 - Six hours of training does not qualify you
10:10 to be a doctor of chiropractic.
10:12 So do your due diligence.
10:15 Make sure you know the person
10:16 who's gonna provide you the adjustment.
10:18 That's very important.
10:19 Then your expectation is,
10:21 don't expect a treatment on your first visit.
10:25 - Another popular alternative treatment
10:27 to traditional medicine is the ancient Indian holistic
10:30 approach known as Ayurveda.
10:32 The remedy center in Duhail is the country's first
10:36 government approved facility,
10:38 and Reshmi Vijay Kumar is the first doctor
10:40 to be licensed in Qatar.
10:42 - We have treatments for many different type
10:44 of health issues, and all these health issues
10:47 can be dealt in a natural and holistic way,
10:50 and take off the root cause of the problem.
10:53 Like, we take it out of the body rather than suppressing it.
10:56 - The therapists at Remedy are trained in Kerala,
10:59 while the medicines and equipment are imported
11:01 from around India for an authentic, traditional experience.
11:06 But it's not all candles and oils.
11:08 - Ayurveda is just not a massage
11:10 or something that makes you feel good.
11:13 It's really not a spa treatment.
11:15 It's very, very, there is more to it.
11:17 It's like a way of life.
11:19 - Bridging the gap between traditional
11:20 and complementary medicine,
11:22 Ayurvedic and chiropractic therapies are designed
11:25 to help relieve pain and balance the body.
11:28 The perfect antidote for active lifestyles.
11:31 From creating a thriving startup ecosystem
11:37 to being at the forefront of genetics research,
11:40 Qatar is always looking to pump fresh ideas
11:43 into a rapidly changing healthcare industry.
11:46 And that's all the time we have on this episode.
11:48 For more, check out Euronews.com
11:50 and connect with us through our hashtag.
11:52 Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time
11:55 on Qatar365.
11:57 (upbeat music)