Brussels: The Department of Health - Abu Dhabi (DoH): announced that it will establish an emirate-wide intelligent surgical network in collaboration with Johnson and Johnson.
According to Emirates News Agency, the first-of-its-kind globally, the network builds on Abu Dhabi's sovereign, intelligent health infrastructure to scale responsible artificial intelligence (AI) across the emirate's operating rooms, improve patient outcomes, and support clinicians. The collaboration will establish Abu Dhabi as the anchor of a new global ecosystem to advance surgical AI across the world.
The initiative will deploy Johnson and Johnson's Polyphonic open digital ecosystem, in collaboration with existing technology partners including Amazon Web Services (AWS), NVIDIA, and Core42. It builds on Abu Dhabi's integrated provider network to connect operating rooms in Abu Dhabi and aims to accelerate research, support responsible AI adoption, and create a model of care that is continuously improving.
Abu Dhabi's intelligent surgical network will connect operating rooms across Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, PureHealth, Mediclinic Group, and NMC Healthcare, giving surgical teams access to advanced analytics and clinical insights at the point of care. This connected model is designed to improve precision, efficiency, training, and consistency of care, while accelerating shared learning, quality improvement, and continued innovation across the emirate and into a global surgical innovation environment.
Dr. Noura Khamis Al Ghaithi, Undersecretary of the DoH, emphasized that Abu Dhabi had developed one of the world's most advanced intelligent healthcare systems by integrating data, AI, and digital technologies across the sector. She stated that through the connected surgical network and collaboration with Johnson and Johnson, surgical care is being strengthened, enabling smarter clinical decisions, and ensuring every procedure can help make the next safer and more precise.
The initiative brings together hospitals, government entities, academic institutions, research partners, and technology leaders under DoH's single governance framework. Insights from before, during, and after every surgery are securely curated, structured, and feed back into the system to support the responsible development and validation of next-generation surgical AI.
The collaboration also establishes Abu Dhabi as the anchor of an open, interoperable surgical innovation environment designed to accelerate responsible AI development and clinical collaboration globally. Hani Abouhalka, Company Group Chair, Surgery, MedTech, Johnson and Johnson, highlighted the shared ambition to accelerate the next generation of AI solutions for surgery and drive innovation to support surgeons and improve patient care globally.
For patients, this initiative has the potential to support more precise procedures, more consistent standards of care, and improved surgical experiences. For clinicians, the programme aims to deliver smarter tools, stronger decision support, and greater opportunities for continuous learning. This collaboration extends Abu Dhabi's broader vision to advance precision medicine, AI-enabled care, advanced therapeutics, and clinical research.