His Excellency the Minister of Health, Mr. Ahmad bin Aqeel Al-Khateeb, has issued a resolution reshuffling the Advisory Medical Board of the Command and Control Center (CCC), and renaming it to: "Advisory Scientific Board". The decision extended thanks to president and members of the former Medical Advisory Board.
According to the resolution, the Board will be chaired by Dr. Ahmad Al-Hersy, from King Saud University, and will include in its membership Dr. Abdulhakeem Al-Thaqafi (from the National Guard), Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Rajhi (King Faisal Specialist Hospital), Dr. Asim Azhar (Applied Sciences Faculty at King Abdulaziz University), Dr. Meqbel AL-Hedithi (private sector), Dr. Muhammad Hamad Al-Belwi (Ministry of Agriculture), Dr. Feraih Alenzi (Ministry of Interior), Dr. Khalid Al-Faleh (King Saud University), Dr. Omar Hassan Kasooli (King Fahad Medical City), Dr. Hassan Al-Beshri (World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. John Watson (US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Habel Alabdy (Ministry of Health (MOH), and Dr. Rafat Ali Sabir (MOH).
As per the resolution, the Board is part of the MOH's Command and Control Center (CCC), and is subject to its regulations. The Board supervises development of guidelines, policies and procedures for diseases related to the public health, as well as setting up strategies and requirements of scientific research needed for confronting the public health-related diseases, including identification of the scientific research priorities, focusing on epidemiological and emerging diseases. The Board is responsible also for encouraging researchers, from the various fields and specialties, whether inside or outside the Ministry, to submit research projects in the field of infectious diseases, particularly the ones with epidemiological dimension and emerging diseases, as well as evaluating the submitted research projects and their relevance to the priorities of the Ministry and issuing of recommendations, overcoming difficulties, in addition to doing whatever necessary to ensure compliance with the ethics of scientific research in coordination with the Research General Department, and getting use of the existing committees within and outside the Ministry. The Board has the right to seek help from any of the qualified calibers from inside or outside the Ministry, for the promotion of its duties.