A new hospital for Dubai

Planning and design have begun for a state-of-the-art teaching hospital that will be the main tertiary care facility within Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC). The Dubai University Teaching Hospital (UTH) will not only provide high-quality inpatient and outpatient care to the people of Dubai and the Gulf Region, but will also host the infrastructure, technology, and knowledge to promote the development of a sustainable health care community in Dubai.

Ahmad Sharaf

“The Dubai University Teaching Hospital will be the leading medical postgraduate teaching facility in the region as it will collaborate with the prestigious academic institution, the Harvard Medical School Dubai Center,” said Ahmad Sharaf, MBA, Senior Vice President of the Energy and Healthcare Sectors of Tatweer, which is responsible for the development of DHCC.  “The UTH will employ leading specialists from around the world, and attract high-caliber physicians from the region for residency and fellowship programs.”

The UTH will utilize cutting-edge treatment modalities and foster the development of centers of excellence in cardiology and oncology supported by region-specific medical research. The hospital will offer a mix of inpatient and outpatient consultations and surgeries, imaging, laboratory and invasive procedures, and non-trauma emergency care. When complete, it will accommodate 500 beds and cover 1.5 million square feet. Long-term plans include a pediatric hospital adjacent to the main hospital campus.

HMI and DHCC have entered the first phase of what is expected to be a fast-track process of designing, commissioning, and staffing the Dubai University Teaching Hospital (UTH). The partners are drawing on contributions from international experts representing every aspect of hospital development, including space planning, facilities design, clinical program planning, nursing, and professional staff development.

“Our goal is to create an environment that breaks down traditional barriers between specialties and fosters true multidisciplinary care,” said Judy Mitchell, AIA, an architect who is director of planning at HMI. “The design of this hospital will anticipate increasingly complex procedures being performed in an outpatient setting, and will recognize the critical role played by imaging, not just in diagnostics but in treatments utilizing image-guided procedures.”

The UTH will be closely connected—in both proximity and programmatically—with Harvard Medical School Dubai Center Institute for Postgraduate Education and Research (HMSDC). “HMSDC is positioned to be the connective tissue for the campus,” said Mitchell. “We anticipate that it will be a meeting place for faculty and physicians throughout the campus.” HMSDC’s location at the heart of DHCC is more than symbolic—HMSDC provides the foundation for academic development throughout DHCC, in particular in the Dubai UTH.

A preliminary drawing of the UTH campus plan

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