8 | Acquisition International, May 2026 Samel Hospital: Reshaping the Future of Healthcare The healthcare industry is experiencing rapid evolution, driven by the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence and digital health technologies. As the sector continues to transform, a major challenge remains in the gap between innovation and real-world implementation. Many of these emerging solutions fail to deliver impact because they are not designed for integration into clinical workflows. Enter Samel Hospital, a private institution whose focus on practical, evidence-based, and clinician-centred solutions has positioned it at the forefront of applied healthcare innovation. Director and Doctor Zaira Nicolau told us more as Samel Hospital is named in the Global Excellence Awards 2026. Contact: Zaira Nicolau Company: Samel Hospital Web Address: www.samel.com.br Samel Hospital is a private healthcare institution that has operated in Manaus, Brazil, for more than four decades. The institution delivers integrated healthcare services that combine clinical excellence with realworld technological innovation. Its service ecosystem spans emergency care, impatient and outpatient services, diagnostics, and digital healthcare solutions developed through innovation hub Samel Health Tech. The institution operates a network of nine units, comprising three hospitals and six medical centres, with plans to introduce an additional two hospitals in the coming years. These units are operated by a multiprofessional team made up of more than 900 doctors, offering 24-hour medical assistance to more than 144,000 clients and partners. These teams offer corporate health plans, as well as medical and hospital assistance, supported by certifications from the National Accreditation Organisation, PQA, PNCQ, and more. “We are guided by the core principles of patient-centred care, clinical responsibility, continuous innovation, and operational excellence,” Zaira Nicolau told us. “Our mission is to improve patient outcomes, efficiency, and access to high-quality healthcare by translating advanced technologies into practical, safe, and scalable tools used directly in clinical workflows.” A central component of Samel Hospital’s offering is Samel Artificial Intelligence (SAMIA), an AI-powered clinical support system fully embedded into the institution’s electronic health record. Designed to operate with real clinical workflows, the platform supports healthcare professionals throughout the patient journey by assisting with digital pretriage, structured history-taking, clinical documentation, diagnostic reasoning, exam recommendations, medication interaction alerts, and discharge guidance. SAMIA’s recommendations are based on upto-date scientific evidence, international clinical guidelines, and institutional protocols. The platform also includes specialist AI agents that provide instant, evidence-based support to physicians during care delivery. It functions as a real-time clinical copilot within the physician’s workflow, supporting decision-making, documentation, and management without disrupting the crucial flow of care delivery. The impact of SAMIA has been remarkable. After implementation in the emergency department, the platform helped to reduce time to first medical evaluation by up to 34% and emergency department length of stay by 24%. It also achieved approximately 98% documentation reliability in AI-generated histories, approximately 90% agreement with physicians’ final ICD-based diagnoses, and made medication interaction analysis 68% faster, improving both clinical efficiency and patient safety. “The core benefit of SAMIA is its ability to enhance clinical efficiency while maintaining high standards of safety and evidence-based care,” said Zaira Nicolau. “Both healthcare professionals and patients benefit from faster, more structured, and more informed clinical encounters. Physicians experience improved workflow efficiency, reduced documentation burden, and better access to real-time clinical insights; while patients benefit from shorter waiting times and more coordinated care.” In recent years, Samel Hospital has dedicated itself to expanding SAMIA across multiple stages of the patient journey. A key challenge that arose during this project was ensuring seamless integration into complex healthcare workflows without increasing cognitive or operational burden. The Samel team overcame this by prioritising usability, governance, and adaptability, allowing clinicians to validate and control AI-generated outcomes. This approach has ensured both high adoption rates and sustained performance improvements, made successful by continuous input from multidisciplinary teams that ensure strong alignment with real clinical needs. Over the next five years, Samel Hospital intends to continue expanding the capabilities of SAMIA, with plans to incorporate more advanced predictive analytics and personalised clinical pathways. Ultimately, the institution’s goal is to deepen the role of artificial intelligence as a supportive layer within clinical practice, further enhancing decision-making, improving outcomes, and optimising resource utilisation. This is a mission that will retain the institution’s position at the forefront of applied healthcare innovation and has earned Samel Hospital its recognition as Brazil’s Most Innovative Clinical Healthcare Network 2026. Looking to the future, Zaira Nicolau shared: “Our focus is on continued growth in both infrastructure and innovation. We plan to further expand SAMIA across clinical and administrative areas, to continue improving efficiency, safety, and the patient experience. We are also advancing the construction of two new hospitals, which reflects our long-term commitment to broadening access to high-quality healthcare throughout Northern Brazil.”
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