The Ministry of Health (MOH), in cooperation with Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), will be organizing tomorrow, 20/6/1434H (corresponding to 30/4/2013) in the morning the e-health conference and exhibition at the main hall of the Four Season Hotel in the Kingdom Tower in Riyadh under the auspices of his Excellency Dr. Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz Al-Rabiah, Minister of Health.
Dr. Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Yamani, Deputy Minister of Health for Planning and Health Economics, said that the conference aims to shed light on the latest health techniques on the international level, and highlight the vital role of the e-health service and its contributions to providing the best possible services of rendering health care for all beneficiaries all over the world, pointing out that the conference will also provide a clear vision on the purpose of sharing such e-health strategies of the Ministry of Health and the way through which the MOH can maintain its leading role globally, as manifested in providing the best services currently and in the future through automating the health services.
Dr. Al-Yamani added that the conference will also discuss progress achieved by the Ministry of Health as well as strategies followed in developing the use of e-health service techniques in a manner that improves quality and efficiency of the health system for all citizens and residents of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, by making use of a group of specialists in the field of e-health on the regional and international level and with the participation of a number of the leading officials in the MOH.
Dr. Al-Yamani added that he will share during the conference, the mechanism that will enable the Ministry of Health to improve the results of health care and increase efficiency generally, by using the health information systems technology that will provide a high-level medical infrastructure targeting all classes of the society. Besides, the national e-health strategy is characterized by comprehensiveness due to such unique plans that cover a wide range of health facilities including 5 basic health regions, 13 health regions and nearly 300 hospitals.
On the other hand, His Excellency Dr. Abdullah bin Ahmed Al- Wahaibi, Advisor to the Minister of Health and MOH General Supervisor of Information and Communication Technology, will provide the latest and detailed information on all e-health projects existing currently in the Kingdom, development stages of each, achievements made, and deadlines expected for each project.
In the same vein, both Mr. George Halferson, the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Kaiser Permanante of hospitals in the United States of America, and Mr. Denis Giokas, the Chief Executive Officer 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 administrative information systems conference for health care will allow a group of specialties in the field of Heath Informatics technology from within and outside the Kingdom to put forward and discuss some worksheets with the aim of exchanging experiences.
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 health 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, the way through which 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 use of radio waves for 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 will highlight the results of the leadership survey conducted by HIMSS Middle East in 2012, the sectors taking the lead and those lagging behind as well as the success possibility of the emerging trends such as health care via mobile devices in changing the form of the health care service in health care institutions.
Also, parallel to the HIMSS Conference in the Middle East, an accompanying exhibit will be held, through which companies and entities specialized in IT will 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.