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- ‘Diabetes’, ‘Hypertension’, ‘Cardiovascular’, ‘Breast Cancer’ and ‘Flu’ identified as top health conditions experienced by Dubai residents.
- ‘Health on Track’ is a ‘first of its kind’education and support program to manage Dubai’s key health issues.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, 8th December 2015:Under the patronage ofDubai Health Authority (DHA),AXA Gulftoday unveiled a unique health education and support program that is aimed at empowering people to prevent, detect and better manage the most predominant health conditions faced by Dubai residents.
Titled as ‘Health on Track’, the new program was unveiled today at an event in Dubai that was attended by Dr.Haidar Al Yousif, Director Health Funding Department, DHA; Dr. Mohamed Farghaly, Head of Insurance Medical Regulation, DHA; Mr. Cedric Charpentier, CEO of AXA Gulf and Dr. Sherif Adel Mahmoud, Head of Healthcare Operation, AXA Gulf.
DHA is focused on addressing the prevalence of major health conditions and their goal is to reduce the prevalence of diabetes to 16.3 per cent by 2021 from the current level of 18.7 per cent. For child obesity, they are aiming to reduce it from the current 14.4 per cent to 12 per cent by 2021. Smoking is a key cause of respiratory conditions and they intend to reduce this percentage in males to 15.7 per cent from the current 21.6 per cent and from the current 1.9 per cent to 1.66 per cent in females.
“The ‘Health on Track’ program is a unique initiative as it is for the first time that all key health challenges faced by residents of Dubai are being addressed through one platform,” said Mr. Cedric Charpentier, CEO of AXA Gulf. “Through this program, AXA Gulf aims to educate the public and customers on health issues in an inspirational manner that gets people talking, thinking and acting on key health concerns. At AXA Gulf, we are honored to support the DHA in this campaign to achieve their objectives. We also thank our partners Johnson and Johnson, MedImpact Arabia, Mobile Doctors, New Medical Center, Boston diabetes & Endocrine center, Northwest Clinic, MedCare, Maghrabi Optics for supporting this program.”
The Health on Track initiative is aligned with the National Key Performance Indicators as outlined by the UAE Vision 2021. The program is exhaustive in its nature and goes beyond just raising awareness amongst people about health conditions which if not detected early on can prove to be quite harmful.
Public awareness regarding prevention and early detection of widespread health conditions like Diabetes, Hypertension, Cardiovascular, Breast Cancer and Flu is critical to reduce the growth of these health conditions. The Health on Track initiative has been launched in order to trigger a call to action for people to take concrete steps towards safeguarding them from these fast spreading health issues.
‘Health on Track’ will focus on addressing the challenges posed by Diabetes, Hypertension, Cardiovascular, Breast Cancer and Flu, which have been recognised as the top 5 health challenges for Dubai by the DHA. Under the newly launched initiative, AXA Gulf will introduce public awareness and disease management programs that will focus on improving the general health of people by driving adherence to treatment plans, decreasing the visit to doctors and also keeping the insurance premiums down.
“22 per cent of UAE health insurance claims are related to Diabetes and Cardiovascular diseases while 18 per cent are related to Respiratory conditions. With better prevention and early detection, we will be able to improve the general health of people, reduce these costssignificantly thereby also bring down the insurance premiums,”added Dr. Sherif Adel Mahmoud, Head of Healthcare Operation, AXA Gulf.
The ‘Health on Track’ program will be implemented in four phases, with the first stage of ‘Public Screening’ set to commence from December 2015. This will be followed by the implementation of a ‘Diabetes Management’ program in Q1 2016, ‘Flu’ awareness program in Q3 2016 and a ‘Breast Cancer’ program in Q4 2016.
As part of the ‘Public Screening’ phase AXA Gulf will organise a series of comprehensive health screening activities through a specially designed booth that will be set up across key locations in Dubai and in AXA corporate customers’ premises.The first Public Screening activity will be organised for 3 days starting the 17th of December at the Mirdiff City Centre mall and people can visit the booth at any time between 11 am – 11 pm.
The booth has been divided into three zones where people can undergo quick health assessments including Blood Glucose and Cholesterol screening, Blood Pressure and Temperature monitoring and an Eye test. Following this, an expert dietician will be available to share healthy eating tips and even recipes for preparing nutritious meals.
Furthermore, a fitness trainer will also be present at the health hub to measure the visitors’ body mass index (BMI) and also share exercise tips. Upon completion, the individual will receive a complete health profile based on their tests along with expert advice on next steps where all data has been captured digitally through an integrated health application installed at the event delivering seamless, accurate and quick results to the public.
