You wake up. Check the mirror, which gives you your vitals for the day. 

You open the fridge, which tells you how much you should eat. Eat food personalised to your genes. 

You step out for the day, wearing a medical device that monitors every heartbeat, every blood pulse. And come back home to a “digital twin” that keeps stock of your daily health data.  

Neom is a $500 billion urban experiment that is taking shape in a corner of the desert state of Saudi Arabia. A digital-first, hyper-connected city seeking to be not just smart, but cognitive. 

And part of its vision of enhanced living rests on upgrading health and wellbeing. Through cutting-edge technology and innovative science. 

Leading this endeavour is Hany Elosman, Director of Computational Medicine and Digital Health Tech at Neom, and part of the senior leadership at Neom’s Health, Well-Being and Biotech sector. He comes with a wide-ranging 25-year experience in medicine across the US and Middle East, working and consulting for healthcare organisations and global corporations like Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare and IBM. Beyond government and corporates, he is also engaged with academia as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Limerick School of Medicine and is associated with several medical bodies. 

Elosman identifies himself as a health and bioinformatics innovation strategist. Think design meeting health meeting technology. 

His vision is clear – to revolutionise healthcare. From reactive to preventative. Mass to personalised. Sick care to holistic wellbeing. Modern medicine complemented with age-old healing practices. Or, as Neom puts it, healthcare from the cradle to the grave. 

But with great innovation comes great responsibility. As Elosman strives to build a 21st century, health-enabling urban community – virtual doctors and robot nurses all inclusive – is Neom a prestige project, a paywalled panorama? Or could it become a medical Mecca, a revolution in urban living that inspires changes in how we provide healthcare? 

There are questions of not only access – technology and innovation often come with a hefty price tag – but also of security on the anvil. Data is the defining unit of Neom, which it aims to gather as the ultimate currency. Mining the information of its eventual 9 million residents to provide power, water, waste. Transport, security, healthcare. 

Data can make machines do wonders. It could also transform a science fiction dreamscape into a surveillance state. 

At SYNAPSE, Hany Elosman will unpack an urban revolution in the making. How Neom is seeking to reboot health. Heal with a digital touch. And whether humans and tech can be on the same side.