LONDON, 5 February 2026 – King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSHRC) is the strongest hospital brand in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region, according to a new report from Brand Finance, the world's leading brand valuation consultancy.
KFSHRC ranks 12th globally in the Global Top 250 Hospitals 2026, up from 15th in 2025, reflecting sustained improvements in brand strength and international standing. Brand Finance’s study finds that KFSHRC performs particularly strongly for local and regional awareness and familiarity, reinforcing its position as one of MENA’s leading academic medical centres (AMCs). Brand Finance data also reveals that the hospital records strong brand momentum and is highly recognised among healthcare professionals (HCPs) as ‘an organisation that medical professionals are proud to have trained or worked at’, as well as for employing specialist clinicians who rank among the world leaders in their field.
Other leading MENA hospitals in the ranking include Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi (23rd), Egypt’s Qasr El Eyni Hospital (27th) and Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University (43rd). Brand Finance’s study reveals that Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi is highly recognised among HCPs for key patient care metrics, including its ‘patient treatment reputation’ and as an organisation that ‘delivers world leading patient experience’. Qasr El Eyni Hospital is well-regarded as an ‘organisation that medical professionals are proud to have trained or worked at’, while Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University is recognised for its high-quality ‘education/training reputation’. Both institutions also perform strongly for being perceived as highly ‘integrated between teaching, research, and patient care’.
Savio D’Souza, Managing Director Middle East and Africa, Brand Finance, commented:
“MENA’s presence in the Global Top 250 2026 ranking continues to strengthen. In 2026, 14 hospitals from across the region feature among the top 100 globally, spanning Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Qatar, Morocco, and Bahrain. This reflects the region’s growing influence in academic medicine and its increasing ability to build internationally recognised AMCs.”
More widely, Healthcare professionals perceive Johns Hopkins Medicine and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to be the strongest and second strongest hospital brands globally for the second consecutive year. Brand Finance research finds Johns Hopkins leads the ranking due to its exceptional brand funnel performance, combining awareness, familiarity, consideration, and recommendation, and strong perceptions across key patient-care metrics. It also achieves the highest across all 500 brands researched for ‘offering patients access to the latest clinical trials’, reinforcing its reputation among healthcare professionals in research excellence and innovation.
Top-performing hospitals in other key markets include All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as the leading hospital in the South Asia region. Singapore General Hospital has regained its position in 2026 as the leading hospital in the APAC region, and Groote Schuur Hospital (South Africa) maintains its regional leader position, while Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires in Argentina has climbed eight places to 28th globally to become the most reputable AMC brand in South America.
Brand Finance is the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy. Bridging the gap between marketing and finance, Brand Finance evaluates the strength of brands and quantifies their financial value to help organisations make strategic decisions.
Headquartered in London, Brand Finance operates in over 25 countries. Every year, Brand Finance conducts more than 6,000 brand valuations, supported by original market research, and publishes over 100 reports which rank brands across all sectors and countries.
Brand Finance also operates the Global Brand Equity Monitor, conducting original market research annually on 6,000 brands, surveying more than 175,000 respondents across 41 countries and 31 industry sectors. By combining perceptual data from the Global Brand Equity Monitor with data from its valuation database — the largest brand value database in the world — Brand Finance equips ambitious brand leaders with the data, analytics, and the strategic guidance they need to enhance brand and business value.
In addition to calculating brand value, Brand Finance also determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics, compliant with ISO 20671.
Brand Finance is a regulated accountancy firm and a committed leader in the standardisation of the brand valuation industry. Brand Finance was the first to be certified by independent auditors as compliant with both ISO 10668 and ISO 20671 and has received the official endorsement of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) in the United States.
Brand is defined as a marketing-related intangible asset including, but not limited to, names, terms, signs, symbols, logos, and designs, intended to identify goods, services, or entities, creating distinctive images and associations in the minds of stakeholders, thereby generating economic benefits.
Brand strength is the efficacy of a brand’s performance on intangible measures relative to its competitors. Brand Finance evaluates brand strength in a process compliant with ISO 20671, looking at Marketing Investment, Stakeholder Equity, and the impact of those on Business Performance. The data used is derived from Brand Finance’s proprietary market research programme and from publicly available sources.
Each brand is assigned a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score out of 100, which feeds into the brand value calculation. Based on the score, each brand is assigned a corresponding Brand Rating up to AAA+ in a format similar to a credit rating.
Brand Finance calculates the values of brands in its rankings using the Royalty Relief approach – a brand valuation method compliant with the industry standards set in ISO 10668. It involves estimating the likely future revenues that are attributable to a brand by calculating a royalty rate that would be charged for its use, to arrive at a ‘brand value’ understood as a net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market.
The steps in this process are as follows:
1 Calculate brand strength using a balanced scorecard of metrics assessing Marketing Investment, Stakeholder Equity, and Business Performance. Brand strength is expressed as a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score on a scale of 0 to 100.
2 Determine royalty range for each industry, reflecting the importance of brand to purchasing decisions. In luxury, the maximum percentage is high, while in extractive industry, where goods are often commoditised, it is lower. This is done by reviewing comparable licensing agreements sourced from Brand Finance’s extensive database.
3 Calculate royalty rate. The BSI score is applied to the royalty range to arrive at a royalty rate. For example, if the royalty range in a sector is 0-5% and a brand has a BSI score of 80 out of 100, then an appropriate royalty rate for the use of this brand in the given sector will be 4%.
4 Determine brand-specific revenues by estimating a proportion of parent company revenues attributable to a brand.
5 Determine forecast revenues using a function of historic revenues, equity analyst forecasts, and economic growth rates.
6 Apply the royalty rate to the forecast revenues to derive brand revenues.
7 Discount post-tax brand revenues to a net present value which equals the brand value.
Brand Finance has produced this study with an independent and unbiased analysis. The values derived and opinions presented in this study are based on publicly available information and certain assumptions that Brand Finance used where such data was deficient or unclear. Brand Finance accepts no responsibility and will not be liable in the event that the publicly available information relied upon is subsequently found to be inaccurate. The opinions and financial analysis expressed in the study are not to be construed as providing investment or business advice. Brand Finance does not intend the study to be relied upon for any reason and excludes all liability to any body, government, or organisation.
The data presented in this study form part of Brand Finance's proprietary database, are provided for the benefit of the media, and are not to be used in part or in full for any commercial or technical purpose without written permission from Brand Finance.
