Dubai Health Authority’s (DHA) first fully Artificial Intelligence (Ai) autonomous medical fitness center provides services with limited human intervention.

The ‘SMART SALEM” center, which is located in City Walk, was inaugurated by H.H Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council last Thursday.

Launched in partnership with the General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs, “Smart Salem”, will target VIPs, investors and holders of the golden residency visa in its first phase. The new center has the capacity to cater to 150 customers per day.

“Smart Salem” provides medical fitness and occupational screening services using Ai and Internet of Things (iOT), which enables the center to complete medical fitness processes with limited human interference, reducing time of completion to 30 minutes and eliminates any errors.

Medical fitness test is a mandatory requirement for all expats in the UAE. Medical Fitness screening is a prerequisite for a residency, employment or education visa.

The center is also the first medical fitness center in the region to use the world’s first push-button blood collection device, which allows for virtually painless blood collection, giving the customer a pain-free health experience while using NFC technology to audit trail their journey.

To further ease the blood withdrawal process for occupational health, an electronic device will be used to identify the location of the vein before blood withdrawal. Smart Salem also utilizes the first approved Ai technology for healthcare to diagnose tuberculosis in chest X-rays within seconds.

The center also uses the Ai Pod to measure vital functions (this includes, blood pressure, height, weight, fever etc) and medical history using iOT technology, which in turn analyzes the information and highlights the risk parameters for the physician. The results will then be sent to the Salem system electronically, reducing time and eliminating possible errors.

The center has also employed four robots, each with a different function (includes customer service, relay, catering and vending etc.) to guarantee the comfort and happiness of customers and ensure that the customer’s journey is transformed from a routine process to an efficient and innovative process.

The new center is in line with the Dubai paperless strategy, UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence and UAE Centennial 2071.

Customer Journey

Explaining the customer’s journey, Maisa Al Bustani, Director of the Medical Fitness Services Department at the DHA revealed:

“Upon arriving at the new center, customers will be able to give their car to the smart VIP valet service, which combines facial and plate recognition to identify them so that the car can be recalled when their journey is completed autonomously. Once they enter, they will be greeted by a robot who will direct them to a screen for self- registration using their facial and Iris print,” she said.

Al Bustani added that customers will be guided by a first-of-its kind personalized Smart Q-system, which calls the customer by their name and their photo, and then directs them to the blood withdrawal booths, which have transparent Smart Glass doors, which electronically become tinted once the customer walks in to ensure their privacy, using voice control,. The rooms also has screens with different scenery options, which customers can choose from to allow for a relaxing feel.

A nurse then uses an electronic device to locate the vein for occupational health or the unique push-button device to withdraw the blood painlessly for medical fitness tests.

Al Bustani said that the nurse then hands over the blood samples along with the passport to the Robot, which transfers the blood samples to the lab and passport to GDRFA officer. After that, the patient is directed to the x-ray room.

After finishing their tests, customers are able to wash their hands using an innovative Smart Wash technology, which is timed to ensure that customers wash their hand correctly and it helps reduce water wastage by 90%.

Meanwhile the system automatically sends the results to the concerned parties in a secure way. “Customers will be able to make the payment via smart channels such as Apple pay, Samsung pay, mPay and ePay to name a few,” she added.

While waiting for their documents to get ready, customers can take a seat in the waiting area and have refreshments and light snacks presented by the vending robot or order other items on the smart tables to get it delivered by the catering robot. They can also use the tablets available in the waiting area.

At every step of the journey, the customer is verified by facial and iris recognition to eliminate errors and provide a hassel-free experience, even the bathrooms are equipped with Smart Mirrors that can be voice controlled to present any content.

“Utilizing all these technologies will decrease the customer’s journey so that it doesn’t exceed 30 minutes, this includes stamping of the visa. It will also ensure that the customer has an entertaining and quick experience,” said Al Bustani.

Al Bustani said the service, which is paperless and requires no data entry and hence has no errors is the first autonomous government service and was launched in line with the UAE leadership’s vision of using AI in serving the public to achieve customer satisfaction.