Partnership established to research preconception health and enhance perinatal care pathways.
Abu Dhabi: The Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH) and ŌURA, the maker of the Oura Ring, have announced a joint research programme to explore how continuous wearable data can support advances in preventive healthcare.
The initiative marks the start of a long-term partnership aligned with Abu Dhabi’s prevention-focused, data-driven healthcare strategy, with an initial emphasis on women’s health and cardiometabolic risk.
The collaboration leverages Abu Dhabi’s advanced public health infrastructure and longitudinal health data assets, combining them with ŌURA’s real-time, continuous insights across key health indicators.
Together, this establishes a strong foundation for population-level health insights, enabling better identification of risk factors and supporting a shift from reactive healthcare to more proactive and personalised interventions.
Abu Dhabi’s extensive longitudinal data further enhances its value as a platform for population health research, providing deeper understanding of how conditions such as obesity, prediabetes, cardiovascular disease, and maternal health risks develop and progress over time.
Initially focused on women’s health, the partnership will examine key research areas related to preconception health and perinatal care, aiming to enable more targeted early interventions and improve health outcomes for women, families, and the wider population.
The collaboration will also extend to other priority areas, including metabolic and cardiovascular conditions, with the goal of scaling successful insights and interventions beyond the initial focus areas over time.
Mansoor Ibrahim Al Mansoori, Chairman of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, said: “The future of health will be defined by sensing and the ability to understand the body continuously, in real time, and at population scale. Abu Dhabi has built an intelligent health system designed for this shift, bringing real-world wearable data into the clinical setting, underpinned by strong data governance frameworks that ensure privacy and responsible use of health data.”
Mansoor Ibrahim Al Mansoori added: “Advancing women’s health and fertility is a key priority for Abu Dhabi, and together with ŌURA we are starting where continuous insights have the greatest potential to detect risk earlier and enable more personalised care across the life course—for mothers, babies, and families.”
Tom Hale, CEO of ŌURA, said: “Abu Dhabi is setting a powerful example for how nations can embed prevention and innovation into the future of healthcare. We’re proud to partner with the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi to build a meaningful preventive health model grounded in data, scientific rigor, and privacy. It’s one of many upcoming initiatives we’re committed to across the region and an important step in building a deeper, long-term partnership with Abu Dhabi.
‘’We’re starting with women’s health because the health of women is the health of families, and the health of families is the health of the nation. But this partnership is just the beginning—our ambition is to develop a model here that can inform preventive care globally.’’
The partnership will be underpinned by a robust data governance framework, including clear protocols for data anonymisation, consent-based data sharing, and secure storage in line with UAE regulations and international best practices. All use of identifiable data will be strictly controlled, with access governed by jointly defined ethical and regulatory standards.
This partnership combines one of the world’s most advanced population health datasets with large-scale continuous wearable insights, creating a unique opportunity to transform how preventive healthcare is delivered in real-world settings.
The agreement represents a key milestone in ŌURA’s expanding presence across the UAE and wider Gulf region, as the company strengthens its footprint through strategic collaborations, locally relevant research, and innovation aligned with the UAE’s leadership in prevention-driven healthcare and long-term wellbeing.
The next phase of the partnership will focus on pilot design, ethics approvals, and generating local evidence, establishing a clear pathway toward broader integration within Abu Dhabi’s healthcare system.
