Saudi Arabia Promotes Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Health System
The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the global Philips, aiming to enhance the use of artificial intelligence technologies in the Kingdom’s health care system, in line with the goals of Vision 2030.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah, stated that this agreement will expand the provision of artificial intelligence services in the health field in an effort to improve citizen and resident services in various medical fields, in a way which directly contributes to achieving the goals of Vision 2030.
He added: “The Ministry of Health is working with (SDAIA) to benefit from artificial intelligence techniques and to support joint local and global efforts to form a knowledge system that combines artificial intelligence with health and operational expertise in order to develop integrated solutions that contribute to improving the performance and productivity of health care systems, and to raise the level of national competencies working in this.
For his part, the head of ” SDAIA”, Dr. Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, affirmed that “Saudi Arabia is witnessing today, under the umbrella of Vision 2030, a development renaissance in all fields, with technical areas being at the forefront,” referring to the authority’s endeavor within the national strategy for data and artificial intelligence to “Make the most of data and artificial intelligence by supporting its applications in all relevant sectors.”
He stated that “this agreement comes as part of SDAIA efforts to promote advanced technologies in the health sector, support the exchange of experiences, develop national capabilities that would improve the quality of services provided in the health sector, create new job opportunities, and upgrade the national economy to be part of economies based on data and artificial intelligence.”
For his part, the supervisor of the National Center for Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Majed Al-Tuwaijri, explained that the cooperation plan between SDAIA and Philips will focus on five main areas: Employing artificial intelligence capabilities in the health care sector; establishing a knowledge center for artificial intelligence that aims to improve the level of skills and expertise; patriotism in the field of developing artificial intelligence applications, giving priority to the application of health technology solutions that employ artificial intelligence in health work paths; and access to a network of senior opinion leaders and specialists in the field to facilitate the exchange of information and joint research of the best of its kind; and will also support ways to adopt new artificial intelligence applications; in addition to contributing to the creation of new job opportunities related to artificial intelligence in the field of health care services.