Tell us about your organisation and its journey to date.

In Olympus Middle East and Africa, we are a team of over 70 individuals with most of our employees based out of Dubai and the remainder stationed remotely in other parts of the region namely Riyadh, Cairo, Nairobi, Casablanca and Johannesburg. We very much nurture a culture of inclusion and diversity as we have over 23 nationalities within our organisation and a 60:40 female-male ratio.

The Dubai office has been the Hub for the region since its establishment five years ago with a renowned infrastructure constituting of repair and training centres catering for the whole region. Olympus is represented in over 35 countries in MEA, predominantly through third Party Distributors.

How has the organisation evolved to address the challenges of an ever-changing healthcare sector? Please list some accomplishments.

The region is evolving rapidly with new dynamics shaping the industry namely after Covid. At Olympus MEA, we are moving away from the “one-size-fits-all” approach as we develop different clusters and segments that can better serve and address the needs of our markets be it in service, education, marketing, commercial. On the other hand, we continue to develop and upskill our organisation’s skill-sets, onboarding new personnel with new experiences and expertise alongside our talented and long standing team members. And that is with a strong belief that building an organisation with a growth mindset and right capabilities can sustain and overcome the numerous challenges facing our region.

Give us an insight into your portfolio and solutions targeted at the Middle East region.

We have versatile medical devices with the ability to treat approximately 100 diseases or conditions. Our recent focus has been on three major areas — Gi, Respiratory and Urology. We believe we have differentiated technology in those areas as we play on our strengths in those spaces to win and provide a high level of standard of care for our patients in this part of the world.

As we continue developing our Endoscopic offering and provide the latest technology to our markets in the region, we are focused on our Therapeutic Solutions business, with innovative capabilities in medical technology, therapeutic intervention, and precision manufacturing to help healthcare professionals deliver diagnostic, therapeutic, and minimally invasive procedures to improve clinical outcomes, reduce overall costs, and enhance the quality of life for patients and their safety.

Tell us about your recent and upcoming investments and partnerships in this field.

We are working on partnerships with medical institutions across the region to enhance our training and development and professional education capabilities. We see real unmet needs when it comes to education and we continue to invest in education as we thrive on elevating the standard of care, focusing on both the diagnosis and therapeutic treatments. We aim at ensuring our latest technologies and advancements in cancer treatments reach out to healthcare professionals in the Middle East and Africa region; hence increasing the overall awareness mainly to public intuitions and MOH entities in the region.

In addition to the above, what opportunities are you looking forward to Arab Health?

Innovation is more important now than ever. There is a need for quality equipment that can add value in terms of ease of use, better patient outcome, shorter hospital stays, and more clinically proven to be top of the list. Considering all that, we will be showcasing, amongst others, our newly launched the 4K VISERA ELITE III Surgical Visualization Platform, an innovative and open solution bringing together multiple observation modes for future-proof endoscopic surgery, our latest advanced bipolar device POWERSEAL, Sealer/Divider, Curved Jaw, Double Action, which was purpose-built to support the variety of ways healthcare professionals use in surgical energy.

From our medical portfolio, we will be demonstrating our range of medical endoscopy, ultrasound endoscopes, respiratory endoscopes and our newly launched navigation system, a wide range of EndoTherapy products and cleaning and disinfection solutions. our most advanced endoscopy system will be showcased, EVIS X1 with the AI model is our current high-end platform that aims to revolutionise the way gastrointestinal disorders can be detected, characterised, and treated. We want to support every endoscopist in every procedure, every day.

Please tell us about your plans for the year 2023.

As conveyed, our current objective is aimed at adding value and offer innovative capabilities and solutions to our HCPs with a differentiated products offering beyond just the flexible endoscopes, delivering diagnostics, therapeutics, and minimally invasive technologies to improve clinical outcomes, reduce overall costs, elevate the standard of care, and enhance quality of life for patients. That will ultimately be achieved through our transformation journey, the efforts of all team members part of the Olympus MEA organisation, and our close collaboration and cooperation with key stakeholders and partners in the region.

In addition to that, we will be revamping our service offering as we continue focusing on patients’ safety and quality while enhancing the local and regional capabilities with shorter turnaround times and better support to hospitals and HCPs across our region.