The Ministry of Health (MOH) in collaboration with Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), is to organize the e-health conference and exhibit under the auspices of His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah. It is to be held on 20-21 of Jumada II 1434H (corresponding to 30 April – 1 May 1, 2013), at Four Seasons Hotel, Riyadh.
His Excellency the Vice Minister of Health for Planning and Development, Dr. Mohamed bin Hamzah Khushaim, has affirmed that the conference is to provide a crystal clear vision over the MOH's e-health strategies, and how to maintain its globally pioneering role in the provision of best-quality healthcare services, both at present and in the future, by way of service automation.
He went on to say, “The conference will be shedding light on the latest development in the field of health technology worldwide, and drawing attention to the pivotal role of e-health, and its contributions to maintaining the highest possible quality of health care services for beneficiaries across the world. It well also touch upon the discernible progress achieved by the Saudi Ministry of Health, and the strategies it adopts to give rise to e-health, with a view to improving the quality and efficiency of the health system for all Saudi citizens and residents. That is brought into effect by a constellation of specialists in e-health at both the regional and international levels, with the participation of a number of MOH senior officials.”
For his part, the Deputy Minister of Health for Planning and Health Economics, Dr. Mohamed bin Rashed al-Yamani, through the worksheet he is to present in the conference, will be elaborating the methodology through which the Ministry will be able to improve health care results, and increase competencies in general. That's is to be attained by using the health information system technology, projected to provide world-class medical infrastructure, targeting all society segments, not to forget the highly important National e-Health Strategy, characterized by inclusiveness, with its unique plans already embodied in the tremendous accomplishments and pervasion, reaching at 5 basic health regions, 13 health provinces, and about 300 hospitals.
In another development, the Advisor to the Minister and Supervisor-General of ICT, Dr. Abdullah bin Ahmed al-Weheibi, will give an elaborate account of the latest information and updates on all e-health projects accomplished at the Kingdom thus far, as well as the evolution phases of each project. He will also touch upon the achievements accomplished, and the deadlines of underway projects.
In the same vein, both Mr. George Halferson, the Chairman of the Board and the Executive Directors of Kaiser Permanent group of hospitals in the United States of America, and Mr. Denis Giokas, the Executive Director of technology department at Canada Health Infoway institution in Canada, will discuss the most important global visions about the recent developments in the field of healthy information technology, and the future approaches and visions related to the use of information technology to develop the quality of health care.
It's worth mentioning that the e-health conference will allow a group of specialties in the field of Heath Informatics technology from within and outside the Kingdom to put forward and discuss their experiences and exchange opinions about the best ways followed in this regard.
The conference will concentrate on the most prominent axes to be discussed, such as the complete assessment of medical and financial benefits resulting from investment in Heath Information technology, the future of healthy finance, the use of Heath Information technology for combating the widely-range spread diseases, the use of e-health monitoring network, the integration of e-health records, integration of health care institutions and how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will perform the structural aspects of exchanging the heath information among hospitals, an overview about the Saudi national program for applying the technology of Radio Frequency Identification in more than 140 maternity hospitals, integration of medical devices with the systems of heath information, and the storage of clinical data.
The conference will be concluded with elaborate visions on the latest trends towards the attainment of the “future hospital”, and highlighting the results of the leadership survey conducted by HIMSS in 2012. Also, parallel to the HIMSS Conference, an accompanying exhibit will be held, through which companies and entities specialized in IT offer their products amid an interactive environment, in which one of the attendees could emulate a patient, as part of a clinical rehearsal, and watch the health data being transferred from one system to another.