The document itself
The DHA publishes the standard as a public PDF. It is short. Most Dubai clinicians have not read it, and a substantial amount of the medical content posted from Dubai every day would not survive a careful reading of it.
What follows is a summary written to be useful, not to be relied upon. The source document governs.
Scope: it follows the practitioner, not the account
The most commonly misunderstood provision is the one about reach. The standard applies to social media advertisement content published by the health facility, by the healthcare professional, or by an influencer — and it applies whether that content sits on the facility's official account or on someone's personal account.
The regulatory obligation attaches to you as a licensed professional. Moving a post from the clinic's page to your own page does not move it outside the rules. Nor does handing the account to an agency, or to an influencer you have paid.
There is a specific provision for clinicians with practices in more than one country: if you are a visiting doctor, or you work elsewhere in addition to Dubai, your social media account for Dubai must be separate and must comply with the standard.
Content: balance is mandatory
Advertisement content must be factually accurate, and it must contain the risks and the benefits, the advantages and the disadvantages, of the services provided.
Read that as a positive obligation rather than a prohibition. It is not enough to avoid saying anything false. A post that describes a procedure's benefits accurately and says nothing about its risks has omitted something the standard requires it to contain.
Separately, misleading or deceptive content is prohibited outright — meaning any advertisement that presents false, exaggerated or unsubstantiated claims about the effectiveness, benefits or outcomes of a treatment, product or service. “Guaranteed results” is the canonical violation. So is a superlative you cannot substantiate.
Patients: consent is narrow and it expires
Any patient whose picture, video or statement appears in the content must have given documented written consent. The standard constrains that consent twice over: it is limited only to the subject requested, and it should not exceed the period for which the grant was made.
The practical consequences are easy to miss. Consent for a case-discussion image is not consent for a promotional reel. And a post that was properly consented in 2024 may sit on your grid in 2026 having outlived the consent that authorised it. We cover the mechanics in patient consent for social media posts in the UAE.
Money: disclose the incentive
Where a health facility or a professional is financially incentivised to promote a particular product or service — whether health-related or otherwise — they should document that arrangement and disclose it to their patients.
This covers the obvious cases, such as a paid partnership with a device manufacturer or a skincare brand. It also covers the less obvious ones, including arrangements where the incentive is not cash.
Identity: your title must match your licence
Where healthcare professionals are advertised, the title used must align with their licensed title, and the qualifications advertised must be relevant to their field of practice. The prefix “Dr.” is restricted to physicians, dentists, and holders of a recognised doctorate.
A caption is an advertisement. Calling yourself a specialist in a field your licence does not cover is a violation regardless of how well you know that field.
Where the DHA standard stops
The DHA standard is not the whole picture. Health advertisements are licensed federally by MOHAP, Abu Dhabi practices answer to the Department of Health, and Dubai Healthcare City runs an entirely separate approval process. If you are unsure which regime binds you, start with the overview of who regulates what.