Next-Generation Healthcare Designs to be revealed at Leaders in Design MENA summit will revolutionize the World

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18 Aug 2015

As the Middle East’s health trends are constantly changing with regards to population growth, increasing chronic diseases, increasing lifestyle diseases, shifting economies and now the extension of a compulsory health insurance. There are ever growing needs to be able to support society with adequate facilities that take full advantage of the latest technological developments. Adding to this is the fact that many people are traveling overseas just to be able to receive professional health-care. GCC countries have closely studied these trends and are now in the process of transforming their health-care to meet international standards, with public and private investment in the sector forecast to exceed $150bn in 2016.

According to the Frost & Sullivan business consultancy, the total healthcare expenditure in the six GCC states is expected to rise to US $79.2bn by 2015, while the GCC’s combined pharmaceutical and healthcare market is set to exceed US $133bn in 2018. Saudi Arabia are now the ones leading this change in the GCC, with a healthcare budget of $27bn, in order to prevent previous issues of overcrowded hospitals and shortages of medicine. This has also happened due to the fact that Saudi Arabia’s economy and population alone, are half of all the other GCC countries combined. Several new healthcare cities are under construction, and the number of hospitals are expected to increase by more than 100 within the next three to five years.

The largest of these medical cities will be the King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh. The medical complex will be the largest and most advanced in the Middle East and cost a whopping 2.3 billion Saudi Riyals. The talented Architects behind this amazing feat are none other than HKS. The firm were ranked the 9th largest firm in the world in 2013 according to revenue. Francis Gallagher, the Principal and Managing Director at HKS and Jeffery Brand, the Principal of Perkins Eastman, (who are responsible for many revolutionary health-care designs, including the Sheikh Khalifa Specialist Hospital), will be taking time out of their busy schedules and flying across the Atlantic to be able to participate in the Leaders in Design MENA summit, where they will be sharing invaluable knowledge and gaining insights from other Senior-level speakers from the world’s leading architecture and design firms. The summit, organised by International Business Council, will be a rare occasion which will gather CEO’s and Founders from the world’s top local and international firms in a five-star setting, to explore business collaborations and share industry secrets in order to take full advantage of the abundant opportunities emerging in the MENA region.