20 April 2026 · 6 min read
A plain-language guide to DHA regulations for telemedicine, what your clinic website can and cannot do, and the platforms that are actually approved in UAE.
Every month we get at least one clinic asking us to "add telemedicine to our website." It's a reasonable request — patients increasingly expect it, and the pandemic normalised the idea. But telemedicine in Dubai is regulated by the DHA, and getting the implementation wrong means operating outside compliance. Worth understanding before you build.
Telemedicine in Dubai is governed by the Dubai Health Authority. Clinics cannot simply set up a video call and call it a consultation. DHA requires that teleconsultation services be delivered through a DHA-licensed framework.
In practice, this means:
This isn't a technicality that nobody enforces. It's a meaningful compliance requirement. If you're offering paid video consultations through an unapproved setup, you're exposed.
What it can do:
What it cannot do:
Your website's job is to get patients to the right place. The actual clinical work happens on the approved platform.
Rather than building something custom, most clinics should be on one of these:
Okadoc — UAE-based, integrated with several Dubai hospitals and clinics, supports English and Arabic. Their booking widget can be embedded on your website or you can simply link to your clinic profile.
Vezeeta — Originally Egyptian, now strong in UAE. Particularly well-known for specialist referrals and GP consultations. Many patients already have the app.
DoctorUna — UAE and MENA focus, solid clinic management features, supports telemedicine for relevant specialties.
All three are DHA-compliant. The right choice depends on which one your target patients are more likely to already use, and whether you want a widget on your site vs. a profile link.
Our recommendation for most small Dubai clinics: pick one, get your clinic profile set up properly, and link from your website. That's the implementation.
When a client asks us to "integrate telemedicine" into their clinic website, 95% of the time what they actually need is:
That's it. This takes hours to implement, not weeks. There's no custom software to build.
The 5% case — a clinic that wants a fully bespoke telemedicine system integrated into their own patient management software — is a much bigger project, requires a dedicated healthcare technology partner, and is probably not the right choice for most Dubai clinics at SMB scale.
One thing to be clear about: don't handle medical data on your website.
Contact forms that ask patients to describe their symptoms in detail, intake forms that collect health history, systems that store diagnoses — none of this should live on a standard clinic website. The data protection obligations and security requirements are significant.
Keep your website lean: name, contact information, appointment type, preferred time. Health information stays on the clinical platform.
Not every clinic benefits equally from telemedicine. Be honest about whether it makes sense for your practice:
Good fit: GPs, general internists, psychiatrists, dermatologists (for follow-ups), endocrinologists, pediatricians for minor concerns
Weak fit: Dentists (almost everything requires in-person), physiotherapists, cosmetic clinics, ophthalmologists, most surgical specialties
If your practice is primarily procedure-based or requires physical examination, adding a "book video consultation" button is likely to confuse more patients than it helps. Better to focus that website space on what you actually offer.
Adding a telemedicine booking link or embedded widget to an existing clinic website: a few hours of work. If you're already building a new website with us, this is a small addition to the project scope.
Building a custom telemedicine platform with your own video, patient records, and DHA approval process: you're looking at a different product entirely, with a different budget, different partners, and a longer regulatory pathway. That's not a website project.
We build clinic websites that are clear, fast, and set up to handle patient inquiries properly. If you're setting up a new clinic site or rethinking your current one, see what we typically include in our clinic website packages.
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