SIEMENS

If you’re looking for models of the city of the future, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a good place to start. Several examples come to mind. There’s Masdar City, an extremely energy-efficient urban center currently being built next to Abu Dhabi’s international airport that makes extensive use of Siemens technologies (see Pictures of the Future, Spring 2011, Opening New Horizons). Also not to be overlooked is Dubai, the glittering metropolis in the middle of a desert, which for the past 20 years has been pursuing the ambitious goal of becoming one of the world’s main hubs for the tourism, service, and financial industries. And then there’s Al-Ain, a city with a population of 370,000.

The contrast with Dubai and Abu Dhabi could hardly be greater. Instead of high-rises, the tallest buildings here are only seven storieshigh. Many describe Al-Ain as an urban oasis in comparison to the two other cities, partly due to its tradition of gardening, which is the origin of its second name, the “Garden City.” While the future is only just beginning in Masdar, and Dubai is reinventing its own future after the economic downturn of recent years, Al-Ain has been seen as a model of successful urban living for approximately 4,000 years. That’s how long this city on the border with Oman has been continuously inhabited. A plentiful water supply made this spot in the desert an attractive site and brought prosperity to its inhabitants, who engaged in camel breeding and market gardening.

Al-Ain, like the entire surrounding region, is also reinventing itself. The UAE is attempting to focus its economic model on growth industries in order to reduce dependence on income from oil and gas drilling (see Pictures of the Future, Spring 2011, Investing in Intellectual Capital).

Diagnosis and Design. Al-Ain is making a name for itself as a center of world-class medical care. A case in point is the Tawam Molecular Imaging Center (TMIC). Its diagnostic imaging technology includes the Siemens Biograph mCT, a hybrid system that fuses positron emission tomography (PET) and computer tomography (CT). This combination brings advantages — especially with regard to early detection and treatment of cancer, cardiovascular, and neurological diseases — because it can dramatically improve the precision of a physician’s diagnoses, thus potentially improving patient outcome.

Patients at the Tawam Molecular Imaging Center are also benefitting from a Siemens Cyclotron Eclipse HP, a particle accelerator that produces the radioisotope biomarkers required for PET examinations. As Bashar Al Ramahi, Senior Manager of Business Development, Mubadala Healthcare and acting General Manger for TMIC explains, “By combining PET and CT technology, we’re using the advantages of both processes. We can now see more — and we can see it in greater detail. In the case of certain metastases, that can save lives.”

Designed and equipped by Siemens, TMIC is owned by Mubadala Healthcare — a unit of the Abu Dhabi investment and business development company — and is clinically operated by Johns Hopkins Medicine International. Operational since late 2010, the center is one of the key initiatives in Mubadala Healthcare’s plan to establish world-class medical facilities in the UAE. Doctors and medical students from all over the UAE are coming to Al-Ain to learn about the center’s sophisticated diagnostic techniques.

In addition to technology and clinical expertise, another reason for interest in TMIC may be the center’s pleasant atmosphere. The facility’s entry hall is as beautiful and inviting as any of the luxury hotels that proliferate in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The delicate wood panels covering the glass facades allow natural light into the interior, and mobiles hang from the lobby’s high ceiling. The aim is to make the diagnostic process as pleasant as possible for patients during what can be an anxious time. Patients are offered the privacy of their own rooms, for example, all of which feature a garden view.

In spite of new institutions such as the TMIC, expansion of the healthcare system in the UAE is a substantial challenge. Studies show that increasing urbanization and growing prosperity are causing a number of problems. For example, the urban lifestyle — lots of driving, little exercise — is among the reasons why UAE inhabitants have a high incidence of cardiovascular diseases and the world’s second-highest rate of diabetes. About 20 percent of the population is affected by this life-threatening illness, and another 20 percent is classified as a high-risk group.

A better alternative to diagnosis and costly treatment of a chronic disease is its effective prevention by means of sports and a healthy diet. And a city’s architecture can play a role here. For example, Masdar City has been modeled along the lines of traditional Arab inner cities. Fresh breezes circulate through the narrow alleys, and the house walls provide shade. Unlike Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which do little to encourage pedestrians, Masdar City is once again making walking attractive — as it has been for thousands of years in the gardens of Al-Ain, where visitors still stroll under shady palms.