ASSESSMENT OF EXISTING DISTRIBUTION MECHANISM OF ASSISTIVE MEDICAL DEVICES AND TECHNOLOGY TO PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY (PWD) IN DUBAI, UAE

Background: WHO estimates that over one billion people with disabilities need one or more assistive medical products. As the global population progressively ages and prevalence of non-communicable diseases rises, the number of people needing assistive products is projected to increase beyond two billion by 2050. Dubai Strategy for people with disability (PWD) 2015 and Dubai inclusive health policy for PWD 2018 provided a conducive environment to for empowerment of the PWD. Currently several organization/authorities in Dubai distributes Assistive Medical Devices & Technology (AMDT) to PWD according to their convenient mechanism, which is deficient and seamless AMDT distribution process. In addition to unavailability of central database information on all PWD, it's also challenging to reach them. There is eminently limited research and studies conducted in this area. Purpose: The survey aimed to understand the gaps in existing distribution mechanism of AMDT and to identify the obstacles contributing to equitable access of AMDT for homecare patients registered under the catchment of 12 Primary Healthcare centers in Dubai Health Authority (DHA). Methods: An online survey questionnaire using Google Form developed in both Arabic and English. It included demographic information of respondents. It is composed of 22 questions that covered six area related to AMDT distribution mechanism. Google Form is an open source survey administration app offered several positive attributes and allows collecting information from users via a personalized survey. The survey was pretested before administering it. The survey link was shared to all registered PWD and 459 PWD responded. The quantitative data analyzed using a range of software tools for descriptive statistics. The qualitative data analyzed using grounded theory with manually coding for open-ended question. Result: The analysis showed that 68.9 percent PWD were using AMDT and it is helping only 53 percent PWD to live independently. Study Results showed that about 65 percent of AMDT cost covered by PWD and 54.9 declare lack of accessibility due to high cost. The majority of the PWD and caregivers 66.5 percent were received training and 49.1 percent of AMDT maintenance were provided by device provider. Conclusion and Recommendation: The current AMDT distribution system for PWD is fragmented, deficient and not responding to the needs of PWD as there was no equal access to appropriate AMDT because of the many factors that hinder the equitable distribution of AMDT. Therefore it is obligatory to develop a unified AMDT distribution mechanism to ensure equitable accessibility, availability and affordability through insurance and charity organizations. Support distribution mechanism to update implement, monitor and evaluate AMDT process for better access and distribution to improve quality of life.