Healthcare systems are only as effective as the people managing them. It’s essential for human capital to grow with technology, as a system outpacing its workforce risks collapse due to complexity, stated Albarah El-Khani, Senior Vice-President of Operations at M42.
El-Khani emphasized aligning innovation with human capital, operational efficiency, and societal impact to truly revolutionize care.
“I urge my fellow senior executives to ensure our pilot programs lead to policy changes. Otherwise, they remain mere prototypes and not true innovation,” El-Khani remarked at a conference on Wednesday.
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Organized by Khaleej Times, healthcare leaders from both public and private sectors across the region attended the 5th Future of Healthcare Summit 2025. Under the theme “Echoes of Tomorrow | Building the Future of Care,” the summit showcased how healthcare is transforming through innovation, technology, and strategic partnerships.
He highlighted that sustainability consists of four dimensions: financial, operational, environmental, and societal.
Albarah El-Khani, Chief Operating Officer at M42. KT Photo: Muhammad Sajjad
“Financially, we must shift to a value-based care model that rewards results over activities. This aligns with our national health reforms redefining performance metrics for hospitals and insurers. Operationally, sustainability involves leveraging digital tools to minimize waste of time, resources, and human potential,” he said.
He also pointed out that the Ministry of Health and Prevention’s (Mohap) Green Hospital Initiative aligns health outcomes with climate responsibility, while societal sustainability keeps patients and communities at the core.
The Senior Vice President of Operations at M42 noted that successful systems are not the largest or strongest, but those that can adapt, grow, and sustain themselves.
“Our systems face challenges evolving faster than our responses, from pandemics, climate shifts, cyber threats, workforce instability, to disruptive technologies. The key question is, how do we design systems that help us adapt rather than just survive? The answer is adaptability, scalability, and sustainability. Across the UAE, these principles are already being integrated into the foundations of care,” he addressed the audience during his keynote speech at the conference.
He mentioned that adaptability starts with design.
“When Covid-19 hit, the challenge wasn’t just medical but structural. Resilience was tested, teaching us that it must be proactive, ensuring designs safeguard systems from failure,” he added.
