Interview with Hossam Al Jamal, co-founder & CEO of Health & Life

This week, we're interviewing Hossam Al Jamal, the CEO of Health & Life. Before that, he held key roles at AME Company and KEMET Medical.

Hossam holds a Bachelor's degree in chemistry and multiple postgraduate diplomas in sales, marketing, and management — as well as an MBA from AASTMT. He is dedicated to transforming healthcare and that was one of the reasons we enjoyed the conversation with him.

Can you tell us a bit more about yourself? What's your background?

I'm a chemical engineer by vocation, with several postgraduate diplomas in sales, marketing, and management. Most recently, I completed an MBA at Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), which — combined with my previous roles at AME Company and KEMET Medical — helped me prepare for my entrepreneurial journey with Health & Life. I truly believe healthcare is poised for transformation and I want to play a part in the process.

Let's speak about Health & Life. What is the market problem you want to solve and where do you see the opportunity?

Finding and booking a doctor, clinic, or laboratory in Saudi Arabia is difficult. For instance, if you want to pay in cash - the price is really high. There is a huge differentiation between price and quality day by day. One day, you will have one price and tomorrow it could change up or down. And the same applies to the quality of service.

So we thought, why don't we have a solution to help patients to find the right doctor for them at the best price and also make an appointment with a few clicks. That was the idea behind Health & Life. We wanted to make booking doctor appointments as easy as booking a hotel.

What are the features differentiating your offering from competitors?

There are a few things that make us different:

• First, we are combining all healthcare and aesthetics services in one platform with a huge variety of providers.
• Second, we give a competitive price as we work directly with healthcare providers and ask them for big discounts - which we then transfer to patients.
• Third, we let patients pay with their insurance policies.
• Fourth, we are working to embrace generative AI to help patients in the process. Once launched, this part will work as an assistant nurse to serve patients in their journey.

Can you share some numbers and achievements of the business?

We have almost 20,000 users and are steadily growing.

What are your medium-term plans?

In terms of the user count, we want to have more than 200,000 users in one year. To that end, we are working to launch across Saudi Arabia and then expand to other countries in the Middle East, starting with Qatar.

Do you have some advice for other entrepreneurs in the digital health space in MENA?

Sure, go for it. The market is big and it keeps growing. The MENA market is worth $200 billion, and there are different problems to solve and different issues to tackle with innovative solutions. It is still a blue ocean, and there is definitely room for new players.

Anything to add for the end?

I would like to see more angel investors and VCs focusing on the healthcare sector. Most of them are focused on food & beverage and fintech. Hopefully, more investors will also look for opportunities in the digital health / HealthTec sector.