Transforming MS care in the UAE: LAMINATE and the future of imaging-based diagnosis

By Dr. Osama Abdullah

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic condition of the central nervous system, marked by an unpredictable progression and highly individual path of the patient. Its diagnosis and continuous monitoring depend largely on magnetic resonance images to detect injuries and evaluation changes in brain volume over time. Only in advanced medical care systems, this process remains slow, often subjective and largely depends on access to specialized experience. This challenge is special by pressing in the EAU, where it is estimated that the prevalence of EM is almost double the global average, and the demand for personalized and timely neurological care continues to increase.

The laminated study was developed to address this critical gap. A collaboration between the Nyu Abu Dhabi brain and health center, Cleveland Abu Dhabi and Yas Clinic Clinic, the project aims to create an optimized and standardized approach to evaluate the progression of the EM three magnetic resonances. In essence, laminate offers and automated tools that detect, segments and compare brain injuries and atrophy in multiple points of time, helping doctors to make previous and more informed treatment decisions.

The main objective is to improve the accuracy and consistency of EM monitoring while facilitating diagnostic load in clinical equipment. By automating the comparison of magnetic resonance scanning tasks at different times, a typical task requires a thorough review and side by side of a radiologist-linate helps discover subtle changes that could otherwise go unnoticed. These include new or broad injuries, early signs of brain atrophy and emerging image biomarkers, such as the sign of the central vein (CVS), which has gained recognition for its potential to differentiate EM from other conditions.

The research base is a carefully selected data set or patient explorations of approximately 150 ms, collected and labeled manually in association with the Cleveland Abu Dhabi clinic and the YAS clinic. These scans reflect a broad spectrum of real -world image variables, voltage of different machines, resistance to fields and scan protocols that make the tool highly adaptable to several hospital environments. The system also includes a medical orientation interface, INJENIVIEW, which allows users to review the lesion groups, validate segmentation results and generate custom reports directly from the hospital image platform.

From a methodological point of view, the study prioritizes clinical relevance. The team developed specific workflows of the site, applied the longitudinal image registration to align the series scans and incorporated the detection of CVS in anticipation of the updates of the McDonald 2024 criteria for the diagnosis of EM. The system is already in active use at the Cleveland Abu Dhabi clinic, with the current deployment in Yas Clinic and plans to extend the deployment to additional hospitals in the region.

Laminate is based on international best practices and the latest advances in medical image research. The project is aligned with the recommendations of the MAGNIMS-CMSC-NAAIMS consortium, which advocates longitudinal magnetic resonance resonance evaluations using a 3D Flair-so that it is essential for laminated pipe. At the same time, it extends the abilities of the previous segmentation tools when adapting them to local clinical contexts and data. Instead of simply replicating global innovations, the project provides a customary solution regionally to the EAU health ecosystem.

Looking towards the future, the future of MS Care will be increasingly precise, data driver and accessible. But precision must coincide with practicality, solutions that integrate customs in everyday clinical workflows, where time is limited and resources vary. This is the vision behind the laminate: to reduce time from scan to the diagnosis, increase clinician confidence and improve the possibilities of timely intervention patients.

Crucially, this progress has made possible through the support of the National Society of the EAU. The financing of the company has allowed the project to go beyond the proof of academic concept in the clinical deployment, facilitating the development of the model, the validation and hospital integration. As Laminate enters its next phase: expanding access, completing system integration and developing regional training programs, continuous support will be essential. This is not just a research project; It is a tangible opportunity to improve the attention of EM through the Middle East.

Although it is currently optimized for EM, the platform design is adaptable to other neurological and systemic conditions that require longitudinal images. These include neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and other dementias, where subtle atrophy patterns can guide treatment; Recovery of the stroke, where changes in the lesion can shape rehabilitation strategies; and oncology, where the evolution of the tumor and the response to the treatment must be highly tracked. By offering a scalable clinical integrated solution for the monitoring of images based on images, laminate demonstrates how research and innovation can be united to remodel the provision of medical care, start with MS and get much further.

About the author
Dr. Osama Abdullah is a physicist and magnetic resonance researcher based in Abu Dhabi. It is co-angry in the laminate study and the second runner-up of the Innovation Award in the Global Global Health Week of Abu Dhabi 2025. His work focuses on the development of advanced image tools for neurological test and neurodegessis Inenerfaasisisisisisisisisis rehearsals of essays of generative generative generative generative essays administrative generative generative generative administrative