Features

Pioneers in Healthcare Gearing up for the Future

by BTM

Thu, 04 July 2024

Pioneers in Healthcare Gearing up for the Future

American Mission Hospital (AMH) has been revolutionising healthcare in Bahrain since it opened its doors in 1903. The hospital shares its plans to forge forward, highlighting essential collaborations, which will pave the way for a new era of healthcare in Bahrain. 

“We are gearing up for the imminent era of large-scale AI applications in healthcare,” says American Mission Hospital Chief Medical Officer and Corporate CEO, Dr. George Cheriyan. 
The hospital’s leaders are working on a new strategic plan that brings together human capital and medical technology which can give Bahrain healthcare of global standards. This is just how the pioneers, who founded the hospital, brought modern healthcare to Bahrain and the Arabian Gulf region, 120 years ago. 

“Our hospital’s history is, in fact, even longer,” Dr Cheriyan adds. “Samuel Zwemer, the American Christian missionary, had come to Bahrain in December 1892. He started his clinic within three months of his arrival. The little clinic he started in Manama Souq grew into a hospital that was built and opened in 1903 as the first modern healthcare facility in the entire Arabian Peninsula.”

In 2024, the American connections are growing even stronger. Its current engagement with Mayo Clinic for long-term collaboration will bring world-class healthcare to Bahrain. Mayo Clinic in Rochester, USA, is ranked No.1 among the World’s Best Hospitals 2024, by Newsweek-Statista’s Global Hospital Ratings. This latest annual ranking had used data from 2,400 hospitals across 30 countries. 

“Thanks to the wise leadership of this nation, which aims to improve the overall healthcare delivery in the Kingdom of Bahrain, our year-long discussions, trainings and orientations with Mayo Clinic are going on full steam. And, God willing, it will soon culminate in the signing of an agreement that will make us one of Mayo’s network healthcare centres,” he says. 

The senior leadership team from Bahrain had visited Rochester, Minnesota, USA, in October 2023 to discuss the way forward, and Mayo Clinic CEO, Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, visited Bahrain in April 2024 to speak at the C3 Healthcare and Business Summit. 

“Recently, in June 2024, on the invitation of Dr Gianrico Farrugia, I had the privilege of attending his organisation’s Platform Med conference in Phoenix, Arizona, USA and got to understand the preparations Mayo is already making to embrace the future with its digital platforms and Generative AI models,” says Dr. Cheriyan. 

In the future, AMH will not only offer healthcare but also conduct training and research that would benefit the Kingdom and the wider region through valuable collaborations. 
“We are confident that our ongoing collaboration with RCSI Bahrain and our soon-to-come collaborations with Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA and the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, India, will soon give Bahrain the best healthcare possible, from experts; whether they are physically present in Bahrain or not”. 

As a not-for-profit healthcare institution, AMH has no share-holders who seek any profits. The management of the hospital reports to a board of directors - which comprises Reformed Church in America (RCA) officials, former ambassadors, healthcare experts and management professionals from multinational companies, from USA and Bahrain.

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