News

Saudi Arabia made digital health a top priority for developing health services: Health Minister

Mahmoud Elassal1

Saudi Arabia's Minister of Health and Chairman of the Saudi Health Council Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah said that the Kingdom has made digital health as a top priority for developing health services in the Kingdom.

"A group of projects has been launched, including Mawid (Appointment) App, which provides the central appointment reservation service. More than 14,000,000 people have registered in this application and more than 60,000,000 appointments have been made.

Telehealth service or virtual health care through Seha (Health) App is also among these projects, allows anyone to communicate with a doctor remotely," he added.

In his speech delivered virtually today at the opening of HIMSS Digital Health Conference & Exhibition in Riyadh, the Minister of Health said that HIMSS conference 2020 will address the transformation in digital health, which will have a tremendous pivotal role in developing and improving health services.

Minister Dr. Al-Rabiah pointed out that the Ministry of Health has worked on applications to provide medicines electronically, so that people receive messages and then collect their medicine from any pharmacy through Wasfaty (My Prescription) project.

He also emphasized that we have many real projects coming on the way, including the Unified Health File, which includes an integrated health system and we expect to see its results soon.

The Minister pointed out that the Ministry is seeking to standardize its applications so that we have one portal and one application for health services in the Kingdom that allows access to all health applications through the Sehaty application and we expect this to be launched at the beginning of 2021.

He added that artificial intelligence will have a major role in taking a quantum leap by connecting different devices in digital health. Minister Dr. Al-Rabiah concluded his speech by saying that we in the Kingdom believe that digital health will make a huge difference in providing health services, as it is one of the pillars of the transformation that we are working on in the health sector.