Cognetivity Neurosciences Ltd. (the “Company” or “Cognetivity”) (CSE: CGN) (OTCQB: CGNSF) (FWB: 1UB) today announced its launch in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), marking the company’s first expansion into the Middle East.
The launch grants Cognetivity access to the UAE’s highly-developed and forward-looking healthcare system, which has long taken a proactive approach to the challenges of an ageing population and the opportunities presented by technological innovation.
The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) expects the elderly proportion of the population in the UAE to rise from 6% in 2017 to29% by 2050. The authority also has a strong track record of harnessing cutting-edge technology, such asBabylon‘s artificial intelligence-powered remote consultation platform, to drive up standards in diagnosis and treatment. Hence, patients and healthcare providers alike are sure to be highly receptive to the Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA), Cognetivity’s flagship product and CE-marked medical device software.
However, the strategic benefits of the company’s launch in Dubai will extend far beyond the UAE itself. Situated in the centre of the world map, Dubai serves as a valuable stepping stone to other wealthy Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, as well as the enormous healthcare markets of leading Asian economies such as China, India and Japan. Crucially, the language-independent and culturally-unbiased testing method of Cognetivity’s ICA allows for delay-free deployment and upscaling in new environments.
The company’s operations in Dubai are being led by Mazen Sobh, who joins the company as Vice President, Business Development. Mazen has around 25 years’ experience in the healthcare technology sector throughout the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant and North Africa.
Before joining Cognetivity, Mazen was Business Director (Enterprise Diagnostic Imaging) at Philips Middle East and Africa, which is headquartered in Dubai. In this capacity he oversaw Philips’ commercial strategy for diagnostic imaging across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, extending the company’s reach into both public and private healthcare sectors.
He also previously worked throughout the area as Regional Commercial Director at Hearst Health Middle East, with responsibility for lines such as its First Databank and Zynx Health clinical decision support systems, and at the Dubai-based healthcare software provider E3 Corp. As such, he possesses both a network of connections that spans the entire region and a highly in-depth understanding of the medical technology space.
“We’re enormously excited about this launch,” said Dr Sina Habibi, Cognetivity’s CEO. “Dubai’s healthcare system is renowned across the region for its quality and innovation, and will be the perfect place to deploy our world-leading computerized cognitive assessment platform. Policymakers, clinicians and patients in the UAE are extremely tech-savvy. And you can see from the name of the government’s Ministry of Health and Prevention that the healthcare system is prepared to tackle the challenge of the country’s ageing population head-on. I can see a national screening pilot working really well here, which could be scaled up in larger countries such as the UK and US.”
Also commenting on the announcement, Mazen said: “I’m delighted to have joined the Cognetivity team, and to head up this exciting new chapter in their journey. From my extensive experience of the region and the healthtech space, I know that the market will be very open to Cognetivity’s offering, which is a fantastic and innovative solution to a major healthcare problem.”
“I’m particularly confident because of Cognetivity’s background,” he added. “On the academic side, it comes from the internationally-renowned universities of Cambridge and King’s College London. And on the clinical side, the company has already achieved multiple deployments in the UK’s National Health Service. These names carry great weight in the Middle East, and I hugely look forward to seeing the ICA deployed in clinics and hospitals here too.”
About Cognetivity Neurosciences Ltd.
Cognetivity is a technology company that has created a cognitive testing platform for use in medical, commercial and consumer environments. Cognetivity’s ICA uses Artificial Intelligence and machine learning techniques to help detect the earliest signs of impairment by testing the performance of large areas of the brain to support diagnosis of dementia. It has achieved regulatory approval for clinical use in the UK and Europe with future clinical approval anticipated in North America and elsewhere in the world.
