Medtronic Moves MEA Headquarters to Dubai, Plans for ‘Medtronic Academy.’

Minneapolis, Minn.-based medical device giant Medtronic Inc. has moved its regional Middle East and Africa (MEA) headquarters to Dubai.

The company will relocate all its regional operations to TECOM Investment’s DuBiotech. DuBiotech is a freezone dedicated to facilitating and fostering growth of the life sciences industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Medtronic selected Dubai for its infrastructure, accessibility, and its strategic location as a gateway to other markets in the MEA region. Medtronic has held a presence in the MEA region for over twenty years having previously been based in Beirut, Lebanon and has made all of its therapies available in MEA over the last decade.

Today in MEA, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes alone represent more than 50 percent of mortalities. Some of the most important trends are the growing prevalence of diabetes in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which is today the highest in the world with almost 12 per cent of the general population being affected. According to the International Diabetes Federation, 371 million people worldwide have diabetes. Governments in the MEA region recognize that diabetes is a health pandemic—six out of the top 10 countries in the world for prevalence of diabetes are in MEA. Estimates suggest that around 19 per cent of UAE adult population suffer from diabetes compared to a global average of 6 per cent.

At a press conference held during the Arab Health Congress, Medtronic highlighted their commitment to expanding medical training and education in the MEA, by announcing plans to launch the Medtronic Academy. The academy will deliver training courses to hundreds of healthcare practitioners over the next two years to improve knowledge and skills of hundreds of physicians in the area of cardiac and vascular therapies as well as spine surgery at every level.

“I am delighted to announce that we now base Medtronic’s MEA headquarters in Dubai. In recent years, the GCC has emerged as a hub of healthcare excellence, with Dubai and the UAE at its heart,” said Majid Kaddoumi, vice president and managing director of Medtronic, Middle East & Africa. “With the rapid establishment of such a hub, it is unsurprising that we are seeing a shortage of specialized healthcare skills to keep up with demand but this is an area we feel that we can assist through establishing the Medtronic Academy to provide training that will ultimately provide better health care in the region. In a region where healthcare spending, as a percentage of GDP is on the rise, there is huge opportunity for the private sector to increase their participation. We hope that by showcasing the cutting-edge technology and solutions that our innovative medical solutions offer, we can go some way to contributing to raising the standard of care in the region further still.”

During Arab Health Congress the company also launched its Integrated OR (iOR) Solutions and Medtronic Hospital Solutions. The iOR Solutions is a solution that integrates spine, surgical and neuro therapies; Hospital Solutions is a new business that will focus initially on offering services in the MEA region to manage and modernize catheritization laboratory (cath lab) facilities, bringing sustainable efficiencies and programs to this critical area of hospital cardiology / surgery departments. Medtronic is setting up a team across the region who will be dedicated to this new business with expertise in cath labs, neurosurgery, diabetes clinics, supply chain, lean sigma, consultancy and clinical experience to provide the best service to its customers.