If your Abu Dhabi clinic's licence renewal is coming and a new record system is on the table, this is for you. It is not for a clinic that needs a live Malaffi connection from day one, where we are not the right choice yet, and it is not for one whose current system is connected and works.
Why can Malaffi decide a clinic's switch?
Because the Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DoH) ties the connection to the licence. Malaffi, the emirate's health information exchange, says on its page for providers that all DoH-licensed facilities, except those exempt, connect to it. The deadline has closed. The same page spells out what that means for a clinic that has not connected:
"Facilities already holding DOH active licenses who are not exempt or excluded from connecting to Malaffi, and have not yet completed their connection, will not be able to renew their DOH license."
It adds a second consequence: facilities with Daman agreements cannot submit claims until they complete their connection. So a new record system is a licensing choice as well as a software one. If your licence type must connect, the system you pick has to reach Malaffi before the day your licence is renewed.
Which Abu Dhabi licence types must connect?
Malaffi lists them by DoH licence type. The answer is Yes for most clinics and No for a set of therapy and retail licences:
If your group mixes licence types, such as a dental clinic and a physiotherapy branch, the answer can differ by branch: the branch marked Yes needs a connected system before renewal, and the branch marked No does not. Check each licence on its own, and ask before you plan one system for all of them.
Two footnotes on Malaffi's page matter. Sports club centres without a physician, and aviation and university clinics, can request exclusion. And the page says the DoH may change the list at any time, so read it again on the day you decide, not from this post.
What does a connection need before you start?
Malaffi names four things to start onboarding. They are not all in the vendor's hands:
- 01Sign the Accession Agreement and the Facility Declaration. Ask onboarding@malaffi.ae for both.
- 02Pass the Malaffi Security Assessment, an excerpt of the DoH ADHICS survey. This one is about your clinic, not the software.
- 03Have an EMR that can send HL7 messages, the standard format Malaffi receives.
- 04Get an SDWAN connection from Etisalat, with a no-objection certificate given by Malaffi.
A clinic still on a preliminary DoH licence is expected to connect as a step toward the active licence. Malaffi recommends writing to onboarding@malaffi.ae at least two months before the planned application date. Count back from that date, and the decision to switch moves earlier than the day staff open the new screens.
What does a vendor on Malaffi's list prove?
Less than the badge on its website suggests. Malaffi publishes a Connected EMR Systems page, which on 22 October 2026 listed 71 names. The page defines the list in one sentence: these are vendors "that have at least one client connected to Malaffi, and have met Malaffi's interoperability requirements for those clients." It then says this "does not mean that these vendors are certified for meeting all other regulatory requirements" of the DoH.
So a name on the list tells you one client connected. It does not tell you that your licence type, your branches and your front-desk habits will connect the same way. Ask the vendor for three things in writing:
- The name of a clinic with your licence type that is connected through the vendor today, and permission to call it.
- Who signs the Malaffi agreements and who sees a failed message on your side.
- What the vendor charges for the connection, if anything. Malaffi says connecting and using the platform is free, and that the provider bears the cost of a secure connection. The vendor's own fee is a separate line.
What does your front desk change?
More than the software does. Malaffi's FAQ says a patient's file is first reached after the patient visits in person and is registered in your EMR. A message then goes to Malaffi, which tries to match your record to the patient's Malaffi record. Its words on a miss: "Incorrectly entered demographic details in your EMR or any other EMR, could prevent proper matching of the EMR record with the patient's Malaffi record, resulting in incomplete data access."
A switch moves every patient's name, date of birth and ID into a new system. That makes it a data-quality project as well. Before the move, ask who checks how names and ID numbers are entered, and sample 50 patients from last week to see.
When do we say wait?
When your licence type is marked Yes and you need the new system connected before you switch. Mindcat Clinic has no Malaffi link today. Our page says it in its table of what Gulf clinics need and in the FAQ: a connection is a separate project, the regulator decides whether it is accepted, and if your licence needs one before you switch, we are not the right choice yet. We cannot give you a go-live date for it, so a medical, dental or general clinic that needs the connection should pick a vendor with a live Malaffi client.
If you are in that group, use the wait:
- Read Malaffi's page again and find your exact licence type and sub-type.
- Put the date of your licence renewal on the calendar and count back the months you need to onboard.
- Ask each vendor the three questions above, and write down the answers.
- Ask onboarding@malaffi.ae or your DoH contact anything about your licence. We cannot answer it for you.
Dubai clinics work under a different exchange and different rules, covered in our post on switching clinic records and NABIDH.
Who does Mindcat Clinic fit, and what does it cost?
It fits a clinic that Malaffi's page marks No, such as a physiotherapy, psychology or dietician practice. It also fits a clinic that keeps its connected system and wants something else moved, and a clinic in Saudi Arabia, where our Clinic is aimed first. What it gives you today: one patient record across branches, a log of who opened each record, a standard health-records API (FHIR), a full export of your data, and your copy set up in your own country. Not today: insurance claims, a ZATCA e-invoicing system, a card terminal connection, and finished Arabic screens (about half are translated).
Our page prices each practitioner a month, in bands: AED 249 for 1 to 5 practitioners, AED 179 for 6 to 15, AED 119 for 16 to 40 and AED 89 from 41. Reception, clinic manager, billing and owner logins are free. The price comes with a monthly minimum, so no one can buy one practitioner at the per-practitioner rate: the shared plan minimum is AED 890 a month, which covers up to 3 practitioners. Five practitioners are 5 × 249 = AED 1,245 a month. Up to 5 practitioners, the quick start is a fixed package we set up for AED 2,500 one time; from 6 practitioners we set it up to a written plan. SMS and email reminder fees and your e-invoicing provider are billed at cost. Prices exclude 5 percent UAE VAT.
A clinic that only needs patients to pick their own slots wants Mindcat Bookings; this post is about the record.
We call the method One record, every branch. You tell us your licence type, how many practitioners and branches you run, and what you use today. We reply with the setup plan and the price per practitioner. If your licence needs Malaffi first, we say wait. If it does not, tell us about your clinic and we start there.
