Healthcare reviews platform publishes first annual ranking of hospitals across the UAE as AI-driven patient search reshapes how people find care across the Gulf
Doctify, the verified healthcare reviews and booking platform used by over ten million people each year, has published its first annual ranking of the top hospitals across the UAE as it marks six years of operations in the region.
The rankings analyse hospitals across four major regions in the UAE: Dubai, Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, with each placement calculated using several categories including patient experience reviews and ratings, award wins, and official accreditations.
Following success in the UAE, Doctify launched operations in Saudi Arabia in June this year and was awarded ‘Best Digital Health Solution of the Year’ at the MedTech World Awards for the Middle East, held in Dubai in 2026.
A changing landscape for patient choice in the Gulf
The latest rankings reflect a broader shift in how patients across the region are finding and choosing healthcare providers. The ability to compare restaurants, hotels and taxi drivers online has been around for years, the same ability should be available to compare doctors.
Doctify created a platform to help patients make better informed healthcare decisions globally, scaling its operations to seven international markets.
AI is now rapidly evolving the landscape of patient journeys globally and the UAE is no exception. The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer found that 59% of UAE residents now use AI to manage their health. Statistics like these are reshaping how hospitals and specialists need to present themselves online. Healthcare providers with a thin or unverified online presence risk becoming effectively invisible to AI-driven patient search, regardless of its clinical reputation, because the trust signals AI needs to surface them are not there.
Doctify helps providers navigate this new shift in patient behaviour. The structured, verified doctor profiles the platform provides have helped drive a 680% year on year increase in click-throughs from AI search tools including ChatGPT and Google AI over the past twelve months, and Doctify provider profiles now surface in Google AI overviews more than one million times a month.
Every review on Doctify is tied to a real appointment and is moderated by a clinical governance committee, creating a verification standard that general review platforms and unverified directories are unable to replicate. It is this standard that AI search systems are increasingly built to prioritise, and it is one that Doctify has spent a decade building.
For hospitals and clinics, the greater volume and consistency of verified feedback also serves an operational purpose. Patient reviews that are comparable across departments and specialists make it easier for decision-makers to identify trends within the feedback and create solutions to improve overall patient experience.
Jason Nahani, Chief Revenue Officer at Doctify, said: “Six years ago we entered the UAE because we could see that patients in the region were ready for a more transparent way to find and compare healthcare providers. Patient behaviour has changed significantly in the last few years. They are no longer just searching Google, they are also asking AI tools to recommend a specialist or a hospital, and those tools need verified, structured data to return trustworthy results. That is what Doctify provides, and it is why some of the largest and most prestigious healthcare providers in the UAE are now on the platform.”
Expanding across the Gulf
Saudi Arabia marks the latest step in bringing trustworthy healthcare information to a population moving quickly toward digital behaviours. Speaking about the launch, Nahani said: “Saudi Arabia is the right place at the right time for us. With a $57 billion health budget, a booming population, and 98% smartphone penetration, the landscape is shifting rapidly.”
Doctify is looking to bring other Gulf nations into its network of verified healthcare providers over the coming months and years. Healthcare providers are able to join the platform for free, with the option to buy a monthly subscription to unlock premium features.
Founded by NHS surgeons
Doctify was founded in 2015 by practising NHS orthopaedic surgeons Stephanie Eltz and Suman Saha, who built the platform from direct experience of one of healthcare’s most persistent problems: patients have no reliable way to find and choose the right specialist at the moment they need one most.
Today the platform operates across seven international markets including the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Australia, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It lists over 220,000 healthcare providers globally, with more than 35,000 actively partnered specialists.
The company was recognised in the Financial Times FT1000 as one of the fastest growing companies in Europe in 2024.
Also published on Medium.
Follow Arabian Post
Select Arabian Post as your preferred source on Google and MSN News for trusted business news and Arab politics and updates.
