RIYADH: The UK’s National Health Service has been more of a “national sickness service” focusing more on treating disease instead of maintaining overall health and preventing illness, the head of a leading research program said during a Riyadh conference on Tuesday.

Raghib Ali, CEO of Our Future Health UK — the country’s largest health research project — made the remarks during a panel session at the second Global Healthspan Summit, of which Arab News is a media partner.

“The NHS has often functioned more as a national sickness service,” Ali said. “We need to pivot toward a model that prioritizes health maintenance rather than just treating diseases.”

Ali spoke about how his career began 25 years ago as a junior doctor in an emergency department.

He recognized a critical flaw in the health care system; too many patients were presenting with advanced diseases that had developed over decades.

“What we were doing as doctors was good, of course, we could treat our patients,” he said. “But too often, we were seeing patients with diseases that had developed over decades.

“If we could have found those people much earlier and intervened, we could have prevented or delayed those conditions significantly.”

Conditions such as heart attacks, strokes and cancers were often treated only after they became severe, highlighting the urgent need for earlier intervention.

The concept of healthspan — the period of life spent in good health — has gained traction as the traditional health care model has been criticized for overly focusing on disease management.

Despite advances in diagnostics and treatments, rising rates of multimorbidity, mental health issues and health inequalities are prevalent not only in the UK but across many parts of the world.

To combat this, Ali emphasized the importance of using new methodologies: “Innovative technologies — like polygenic risk scores and digital interventions — are vital in creating a more tailored approach to health,” he said.

Ali added: “Our goal is not just to extend life but to compress morbidity, ensuring that the period of ill health is as short as possible.”

While the adage “prevention is better than cure” has long been accepted, much of the research has focused on animal models rather than human populations.

To change this, Ali stressed the need for “a robust health research program that encompasses a diverse cohort of participants to understand how to improve healthspan effectively.”

Our Future Health UK was established to address gaps in research by creating a large, ethnically and socioeconomically diverse cohort that could provide valuable insights into healthspan interventions.

It aims to engage millions of individuals across various demographics, including younger populations, to understand the factors driving multimorbidity and how to effectively enhance healthy lifespans.

Ali highlighted the importance of making participation accessible and appealing to people from all walks of life.

“One of our key objectives is to decrease inequalities. We aim to make participation as straightforward as possible to engage individuals from all backgrounds,” he said.

Ali’s discussion emphasized that the future of healthspan medicine lay in effectively harnessing data.

By creating a comprehensive evidence base that includes insights from a wide range of participants, researchers hope to better understand which interventions are most effective and cost-efficient to develop large-scale public health strategies.

RIYADH: The newly-appointed Ambassador of Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia M. Delwar Hossain said his country seeks deeper collaboration with Riyadh to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

In an exclusive interview with Arab News, Hossain said: “As far as our people are concerned, we have had a close relationship for centuries, but the state of Bangladesh was formed in 1971 and we established formal diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia in 1975. Since then, our relationship has been growing progressively.

“We are planning to jointly celebrate. It will not be just celebration events. We want to take advantage of this milestone event to take our relationship to a new high,” said the envoy.

“We are expecting some exchange of high level visits to further consolidate our relationship. We are planning joint events in Riyadh as well as in Dhaka to mark this milestone in our diplomatic ties. There will be some exchange of cultural troupes that will help in better understanding of each other’s culture, and for better bonding between our people.”

He continued: “Bangladesh has an overwhelming Muslim population and our people view Saudi Arabia as the host of the Two Holy Mosques — we need to come here to fulfill our religious obligations, and the King of Saudi Arabia is custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. So, we see Saudi Arabia from that perspective.”

Some think that the Saudi-Bangladeshi relationship is mainly based on human resource cooperation. But, he said, that is not the full truth.

“Of course, we have right now about 3.2 million people staying in this country. Apart from that we have a very good relationship with Saudi Arabia in other sectors such as trade, investment, technical collaboration and Saudi assistance in infrastructure development in Bangladesh. In recent years our bilateral trade has witnessed considerable growth.”

Hossain said investment is significant. “We are in discussions, both at government and private level, to increase Saudi investment, and also some Bangladeshi investment in Saudi Arabia.”

Saudi companies are engaged in Bangladesh in different sectors, he said. Saudi company Red Sea Gateway is managing one seaport terminal, and other companies are interested in getting involved in managing key installations in Bangladesh.

“Until now we had mostly unskilled workers. Our target is now to bring some skilled workers, so that we can be a proud part of the ongoing development projects in the Kingdom,” said Hossain.

“We have a huge pool of professionals and wish to bring them here as there is vast employment prospects emerging from Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 initiatives, including mega projects like NEOM, Red Sea, Qiddiya, Amala, and Diriyah developments.

“We have a good relationship in the energy sector. We recently had a discussion at the ministerial level to further strengthen our energy cooperation. We are thinking of something big with Saudi Arabia. We are becoming an energy hub — first we want to cater our national requirement and then aim to fulfill demand of some neighboring countries. We are hoping to come up with something concrete in the near future. It’s not just energy, we are also talking about the whole range of petrochemicals and fertilizers. There could be one or two joint ventures in fertilizers in Saudi Arabia,” said the ambassador.

“Our aim is to foster deep collaboration in the energy and agriculture sectors, to be more specific, and also further strengthen relationships in education and training, including information technology. Right now we have about 1,500 Bangladeshi students studying at Saudi universities on scholarships. We are hoping that more scholarships will be in place in the near future.”

On Bangladesh signing a Hajj agreement with Saudi Arabia for this year, the ambassador said: “This year it’s about 87,000. We have concluded the agreement in January this year for a smooth Hajj experience for Bangladeshi pilgrims.”

He also addressed Saudi support for the Rohingya people. “We are currently hosting about 1.5 million Rohingyas from Myanmar. To ensure their living conditions, we need help from the international community, and the Saudi government is very generous in taking part in humanitarian operations for those oppressed people.

“We are very much grateful to King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and for their overwhelming support, not only in humanitarian assistance, but also within international fora for the return and life of these people in their motherland, Myanmar,” said the ambassador.

“Saudi Arabia is extending wholehearted support for the resolution of the Rohingya crisis and also in humanitarian assistance, giving the stay in Bangladesh,” he added.

“We are thankful to the Saudi leadership. We have an excellent relationship with Saudi Arabia that is expanding rapidly. We work very closely with Saudi Arabia on many regional and global issues, within the UN and other regional and global forums, particularly under the aegis of OIC.”