Heart of THE MATTER
has been hard at work to revamp every aspect of its society as it moves to diversify its economy away from petroleum exports in line with its Vision 2030. One of the pillars of the nation’s efforts to bolster a 21st-century economy comes in the form of modernizing and introducing state-of-the-art healthcare for its 33 million residents.
To do so, the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health is pursuing a bold initiative to digitize medical data and create unified patient records to facilitate next generation health services in the country, as it expands medical cities throughout its most densely populated areas. The aim is to increase the efficiency of health services by reducing the amount of time doctors and healthcare providers spend on managing and updating individual health records.
Until recently, patient data has been mostly managed by hospitals and doctors’ offices, requiring release forms and lengthy waiting periods in order for separate institutions to disclose medical records. Now, health officials are seeking to streamline health services by creating a national patient portal where data can be stored and accessed without unnecessary bureaucracy.
“The digital transformation is one of the major steps to a better and more efficient patient care,” Milko Jovanoski, international healthcare marketing manager, Nuance Communications, told the Saudi Gazette. “KSA has a strong vision and has launched great initiatives to make this happen. A digital transformation is also a change management exercise, where all stakeholder need to work together. Clinical speech recognition supports healthcare professionals significantly to achieve their goals, reduce the administration's burden, and capture narrative patient data.”
Demand for such digital health care tools is growing organically from doctors’ offices. A recent study by Nuance Communications found 48% of respondents in healthcare services plan to improve their current clinical documentation protocol, with 46% looking to
THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA
invest in digital dictation and speech recognition tools. Such trends reflect a growing desire for paper-free workflow solutions in the medical sector.
Cloud-based computer servers will facilitate electronic medical records (EMR), which will play an important role in unifying patient data in accordance with the government’s plan to make patient records available to any health facility a patient might visit in Saudi Arabia. The shift toward digital record keeping will reduce the amount of time doctors spend writing observations and prescriptions, which can occupy nearly half of the working hours healthcare providers are in their offices, reducing time for face-toface consultations with patients.
“Our research into the EMR adoption across Saudi Arabia revealed that healthcare institutions see Vision 2030 as a key driver for the healthcare sector development, especially in relation to IT implementation,” said Frank Fritzsche, a research and advisory services manager at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Europe. “Given its current EMR adoption, with advanced EMRs in major cities and handwritten records in rural clinics, the country overall has still some way to go to achieve the goals set for 2020 in this respect.”
The initiative comes as Saudi Arabian leaders invest billions in creating 21st-century medical cities that will serve domestic and international patients. In Riyadh alone, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has launched nearly 1,300 development projects worth USD22 billion, which include seven medical cities and hospitals.
Such projects are designed to attract a large number of GCC residents who spend millions in pursuit of medical services abroad. With a mix of modern healthcare facilities and streamlined medical records systems, the Kingdom is planning to distinguish itself as a leading medical services provider in the Gulf region. ✖
We provide everything from tertiary care to specialist care. The department of surgery is divided into eight subdivisions including plastic surgery, orthopedic, neurosurgery, and urology. Our entire staff is trained in these specialties and provides care up to the tertiary level. We are the first hospital in the eastern part of Riyadh to provide care to polytrauma
Our plan is staggered in terms of opening more beds and having more facilities operational depending on the budget that the government provides, while at the same time attracting physicians, as