| COVID-19 cases continue to decline in Saudi Arabia, as the government takes every effort to flatten the curve. But the health crisis is not over yet and the kingdom, like all countries in the world, would have to remain vigilant to rein in new cases.
Saudi Arabia’s COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people is much lower than most of its regional peers and many nations worldwide, while its case-fatality rate is among the lowest in the world among major economies, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The Ministry of Health said in September its COVID-19 lab tests have exceeded 5 million, while the number of cases have fallen below 800 per day.
The kingdom’s heavy investment in healthcare services over the years, financial support and quick clampdown on business, social and leisure activities helped rein in the crisis. It is now exploring latest technologies to bring new collaborative digital solutions.
In August, the kingdom hosted the virtual Riyadh Global Digital Health Summit (RGDHS), which highlighted some of the key technology solutions being incorporated to fight the coronavirus, and other viruses and diseases.
“RGDHS is far more than a healthcare conference; it is a global digital platform bringing together people who have the ability to work collaboratively to accelerate our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, paving the way for a united effort to manage the crisis and build capacity and resilience for the future,” said Dr. Bandar Alknawy, CEO at the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, and president of Riyadh Global Health Summit.
The two-day forum saw 30 international speakers and 300,000 attendees. It ended with a “Riyadh Declaration” with the following key recommendations compiled by global experts in healthcare systems, public health, digital health, and academic institutions.
The nine points include:
1. Effectively implement data-driven and evidence-based protocols for clear and effective communication with common messaging in order to build citizens’ trust;
2. Work with global stakeholders to confront mis/disinformation propagation through social media platforms and mass media;
3. Establish standard global minimum data set for public health data reporting as well as a data governance structure tailored specifically to communicate diseases;
4. Ensure countries have established priority in relation to date and digital health, in particular the ‘Digital Maturity’ and infrastructure;
5. Enable health and care organisations with the necessary technology to transform high quality, timely data collection and sharing for applied health intelligence;
6. Cultivate a health and care workforce with the knowledge, skills and training in data and digital technologies required to face current and future pandemic health challenges;
7. Ensure surveillance systems combine an effective public health response with respect of ethical and privacy principles;
8. Develop digital personal tools and services to support comprehensive health programmes (disease prevention, testing, management, and vaccination programme) globally;
9. Maintain, continue to fund, and innovate surveillance data systems as a core part of the connected global health system for rapid preparedness and optimal global response.
DIGITAL HEALTH Saudi Arabia is also eyeing huge investments in digital health infrastructure.
“KSA will be one of the fastest-growing digital health markets in the GCC region,” according to Frost & Sullivan. “Telehealth adoption is approximately 70% in KSA, and almost 34% of the young physicians in KSA use AI to facilitate diagnoses. The KSA government has allocated USD 1.5 billion toward healthcare IT and digital transformation programmes.”
Even before the crisis, the Ministry of Health (MoH) had been developing a Digital Health Strategy a few years ago to create an overarching digital health ecosystem in the country.
The ministry has an e-Health strategy, which aims to utilise telemedicine to improve the accessibility and quality of care in remote areas where speciality services are not available.
“COVID-19 has given a boost to the ongoing digital transformation efforts of KSA MoH through the speedy implementation of telemedicine services by healthcare facilities. The MoH is trying to strengthen telemedicine services, making it an excellent investment opportunity,” Frost & Sullivan said in its report.
The kingdom could also emerge as the region’s branded generics manufacturing hub.
“The low level of domestic pharmaceutical drug production (20% to 30%) in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), coupled with the ambition to diversify into non-oil sectors (e.g., bioeconomy) will continue to make the localisation of pharma drug manufacturing a lucrative opportunity in 2020,” F&S noted. |
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