Saudi German Hospitals Group

Technology and digitally-led health systems became not only important during COVID-19 but an immediate necessity. In the Middle East, regional IT experts were faced with deploying and rolling out technological practices and systems in unprecedented timeframes. WHY IT MATTERS While IT health chiefs were faced with the challenges the crisis presented, the pandemic also paved the way for boundless opportunities in modernising and improving healthcare systems globally. The expert panel at the ' Middle East CIO Roundtable ' opening Keynote during Day Three of HIMSS21 Middle East consisted of Eng. Adnan Alrayes, Executive Director of Virtus Informatics (Kuwait); Dr Khalid Alyafei, Division Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Sidra Medicine (Qatar); and Eng. Fahad Al-Hussein, Group Chief Information Technology Officer – MENA at Saudi German Hospitals Group (KSA). The session was moderated by Waleed AlBahli, General Director of the National Health Information Center (NHIC) (KSA). ON THE RECORD From a Saudi perspective, NHIC’s AlBahli spoke about how, as countries emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, many nations are striving to build more resilience and efficient digital mature healthcare systems. “COVID-19 has been a catalyst for change,” he said, pointing out that many of the changes fell on the shoulders of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in healthcare settings. Alyafei offered a Qatari perspective, saying he believed the COVID-19 pandemic enabled the introduction of technology to better help treat and care for patients. “There was a high demand from the government to find smart solutions,” he said. One example was the government’s smart tracing app which informed users if they had been near a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19. The app also tracked the status of its users, allowing only users with a ‘green’ status to enter public areas. “This played a major role in terms of prevention; to put those people who have a suspected disease to stay at home.” Qatar has also empowered patients – through digital platforms – to decide how they would like to receive their healthcare, while new technologies have enabled data sharing across the sector. Other evolving technologies included introducing an advanced COVID-19 saliva test that gave results within two to three hours, and new systems to support remote monitoring and telemedicine. These technologies, explained Alyafei, will support health systems during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. In Kuwait, Alrayes stated the GCC country, like many others across the world, had to find immediate solutions for the continuation of healthcare services to patients as the country went into COVID-19 lockdown. “We did not want to discontinue our service to the community. We had to find solutions to deliver care beyond the fence of the hospital.” These include technologies that deliver remote services and healthcare, and finding ways to upskill the community to adopt digital systems after a previous reliance on in-person care. Alrayes added that while government health leaders “underestimated” the ease of adoption of digital health services during the initial weeks and months following the pandemic, the community went on to embrace the move to digital mature systems “beyond our expectations”. And communication was a key tool in the adoption of these technologies, with health leaders engaging communities on what services they wanted to receive remotely, as well as involving them in the design process. “We involved the community and that is how we raised satisfaction.” Alrayes addressed the changing role of the CIO following the pandemic, saying that: “We were able to accomplish what we could not accomplish in many years. The pandemic brought disaster to us, but it also brought a lot of good things to humanity. This [digital transformation] is one example.” Al-Hussein also discussed the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on IT leaders in healthcare, saying it led those in their field to have more autonomy but also more responsibility. He further raised the importance of public and private sector partnerships in rolling out digital mature systems. “Each one compliments the other. The private sector for the flexibility of adoption and the fast implementation. And the government by being a regulator.” The COVID-19 pandemic, he said, has started the ball rolling on e-health that is now unstoppable. “Mobile apps and e-health are changing patients' experiences... Telehealth as well, and, in the future, artificial intelligence.” Regulation, policies procedures, and standards, frequent awareness sessions, audits, adopting the right technology systems, such as encryption, and two-step verification is key to protecting data privacy and patient confidentiality, Al-Hussein concluded. Register now to listen to the session 'on demand' at the HIMSS21 Middle East .

Philips, a multinational conglomerate and specialist in health technology, has announced a partnership with the Middle East’s Saudi German Health (SGH) Group to provide solutions aimed at treating and/or alleviating the symptoms of sleep disorders in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The two parties have signed a three-year agreement to launch a “state-of-the-art” Sleep Disorders Management service to help patients “suffering from acute disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).” Through the service, Philips has confirmed it will offer SGH patients “integrated, diagnostic and therapeutic” programmes that can cover a patient’s entire treatment cycle. Follow-up procedures will also be implemented into the programmes. Formally known as Saudi German Hospitals Group, SGH underwent its first major rebrand in 30 years with the announcement of its new name late last month. The group runs hospitals and clinics in several cities across Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Yemen, with plans to launch soon in Morocco and Pakistan. SGH is owned by Middle East Healthcare Company (MEAHCO), known as the largest healthcare provider in KSA . WHY IT MATTERS It has been found that sleep disorders such as OSA are common in territories such as Saudi Arabia, but that more awareness of these types of conditions were required. For example, a 2017 study by the King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah found that the rate and risk factors of OSA in the Saudi population were similar to those observed in Western studies, affecting “at least 4.0% and 1.8% of males and females, respectively”. Meanwhile, a 2020 study by the King Saud University in Riyadh found that “OSA symptoms and risk were relatively common among Saudi pregnant women,” but that “increasing the awareness among physicians about this association is essential to improve early detection of the disorder.” Earlier this month, Philips released findings of its 6th annual sleep survey that found that since the onset of COVID-19, 70% of global respondents had experienced one or more new sleep challenges, with 60% reporting that the pandemic had directly impacted their ability to sleep well. “The cumulative long-term effects of sleep loss and sleep disorders have been associated with a wide range of deleterious health consequences including an increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack, and stroke,” explained Mohamed Sindi, CEO of Philips Healthcare Saudi Arabia. “Our strategic partnership with MEAHCO for sleep disorder management services will bring state-of-the-art Philips solutions to the KSA region and improve the overall quality of the patients leading to better lives.” ON THE RECORD “The partnership aims to build a treatment journey, starting from education for the patients on their condition, diagnostics of OSA, providing treatment solutions and following up with the patients to increase treatment compliance,” Philips released in a statement. “It will also create more awareness about sleep disorders amongst the health care professionals, institutions, medical schools, governmental health care providers and the public of KSA.” Makarem Batterjee, President of MEAHCO, added: “Sleep Disorders Management is an important professional service that we look forward to making available to our community. Signing this project with Philips is in line with our strategic relation that we are confident will expand in different directions across SGH Group.”

SELF-MANAGEMENT PLATFORM FOR IBD PATIENTS Social purpose company, Ampersand Health has announced its partnership with Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS trust to roll out the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) platform My IBD Care. The initiative supports patients living with Crohn's disease and Ulcerative colitis and facilitates remote monitoring and communications between these patients and their clinicians. The platform will help support approximately 2,800 IBD patients managed by the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS trust and their clinicians. This will include consultant gastroenterologists, IBD nurses, and colorectal surgeons. The chronic disease management app helps individuals self-manage their IBD on a daily basis. It incorporates a personal health record, medication and appointment reminders, daily lifestyle tracking and a library of lifestyle and wellbeing courses. ITALY'S DIGITAL THERAPEUTICS OPPORTUNITIES The official journal of Smith Kline Foundation, Tendenze Nuove, announced the publication of the white paper Digital Therapeutics, an Opportunity for Italy, providing the knowledge foundations for the Italian ecosystem to advance on DTx. Co-promoted by daVinci Digital Therapeutics, FADOI, FSK (Smith Kline Foundation) and Healthware Group, the publication represents the first steps towards the implementation of digital therapeutics that Italy began following other countries like Germany, France and the US. The book consists of insights and recommendations from 40 leading experts in the field, also involved in the Digital Therapeutics for Italy - #DTxITA working group, established in 2019 with the aim to endorse the implementation of DTx in the Italian healthcare system. PRECISION MEDICINE RESEARCH IN INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE Genetic research platform, Sano Genetics is collaborating with BenevolentAI, C4X Discovery, and Patients Know Best for precision medicine research for ulcerative colitis (UC), one of the two main forms of inflammatory bowel disease. A part funding of £330K from the UK government's innovation agency Innovate UK has been raised for the research. The aims are to accelerate development of biomarker discovery and precision medicine in this area. “More than six million cases of IBD were recorded world-wide in 2017 and UC specifically is estimated to affect approximately one in every 330 people,” said Patrick Short, CEO of Sano Genetics. “As the prevalence of IBD continues to increase, personalised approaches to early detection, treatment, and management are becoming ever more important. We are delighted to be pooling our knowledge with BenevolentAI and C4X Discovery to accelerate drug and biomarker discoveries which have the potential to change the lives of UC patients.” GERMAN COMPANY DEVELOPS MODEL FOR STRESS ANALYSIS Working closely with the movement science department of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (WWU) Münster, German technology and IT company, Predimo has launched a 3D human musculoskeletal computer model called Myonardo, after a development in the past five years. The models enables the mechanical stress on bones, joints, tendons and muscles during human movement to be measured. The platform determines which forces are acting in the body without the need for surgery, opening up new knowledge opportunities, especially in the fields of medicine, ergonomics, sports and automotive. Responsible for this innovation is Professor Dr Heiko Wagner from Muenster University. Together with Predimo managing director Dr Dirk Bendig and their interdisciplinary team with expertise in movement science, biology, biomechanics, medicine, medical technology, physics, and sports and economics. BOOSTING WOMEN PHYSICIANS IN ETHIOPIA Medics.Academy, a UK company established to address the global health workforce shortage, and the Ethiopian Medical Women’s Association (EMeWA) have signed a partnership agreement to help women physicians in Ethiopia. Endorsed by the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia, the project will help EMeWA - an organisation established by female physicians in Ethiopia, to fulfil its vision to establish an excellence center for women physicians through professional development and other areas of focus. As part of the collaboration Medics.Academy will be investing £250K (12 million Ethiopian Birr) in building a learning community to provide digital access to training. It will also support a target of 70% of female physicians in Ethiopia over the next five years. The country has been identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as one of the 57 countries in the world with a chronic shortage of health workers. FREE VIRTUAL CHECKUPS FOR OVER 60S Digital health company Medicspot will open virtual clinics in five London pharmacies to offer free heart health screening for over 65s suffering from new shortness of breath. The service comes amid the restructuring and changing prioritisation of NHS services, reduced access to heart screening, and the reluctance of over 65s to seek out preventative care due to the risk of catching COVID-19. Equipped with remote diagnostic technology developed by its sister company Arc Health, Medicspot has opened virtual clinics in five pharmacy consulting rooms. Previously, the technology has been used to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 by facilitating remote GP consultations in NHS GP surgeries, care homes and hot hubs across the UK. Now Medicspot hopes to use the same technology to tackle cardiovascular disease. VISIONABLE HEALTHTECH APPOINTS FIRST CCO UK health technology company Visionable has announced the appointment of David Walker to the newly created position of chief commercial officer (CCO). Visionable redesigns healthcare through a digital collaboration platform which enables clinicians to deliver better patient outcomes. The expansion of the business’ executive leadership team follows Visionable’s growth in 2020, which saw £17 million of investment that the company raised in Series A and Series A1 funding rounds. Visionable has appointed Walker to capitalise on its existing success. As the company’s first CCO, Walker will be responsible for developing and creating new partnerships with international organisations to expand Visionable’s presence. SENSYNE HEALTH LICENSES MAGNIFEYE TECHNOLOGY UK clinical AI company, Sensyne Health has announced that it has signed a license and development agreement with healthcare company, Excalibur to apply Sensyne’s MagnifEye system. The system will be used with Excalibur’s proprietary lateral flow rapid diagnostic tests across a range of indications including its COVID-19 antigen test currently being marketed in the UK and across Europe. The Excalibur COVID-19 antigen lateral flow diagnostic test has been approved by the UK regulator for mass population screening in symptomatic and asymptomatic people. The MagnifEye system is Sensyne’s proprietary software application available as both a smartphone app and a web application, that uses a cloud-based deep learning algorithm to automate the reading and analysis of different diagnostic tests. EGYPT E-HEALTH STARTUP SECURES GRANT Egyptian e-health startup DilenyTech has secured a $160K non-equity grant from the Information Technology Academia Collaboration (ITAC) programme to strengthen its AI platform when expediting the detection of breast cancer. Founded in 2018, the startup was awarded a US patent for a novel AI-enabled image analysis technology a few months ago and was ranked second in the Decoding Health Challenge organised by Health 2.0 Egypt and UNESCO in December 2019. DilenyTech plans to optimise the screening and diagnosis of AI assistance to create a precise diagnosis and accelerating reporting. Recently, DilenyTech launched a worldwide bi-lingual AI-enabled breast cancer risk assessment tool in Arabic and English. DIABETES PLATFORM QUIN CLOSES FUNDING ROUND UK digital health startup, Quin has closed its latest funding round placing its total capital raised to date at £3.6 million. The Quin app provides personalised diabetes treatment information for people who take insulin to manage their blood glucose levels. It also presents users with continuous, data-led support for insulin dosing decisions, based on behavioural and physiological factors. Aiming to help people with diabetes to hone in on multiple daily lifestyle decisions, the app diminishes the related stress and even difficulties with mental health expierienced. Results from beta tests of the app show 84% of users experienced better health outcomes or quality of life, or both. The app is currently limited to the UK and Ireland App Stores, but the company has plans for global availability this year. EXSCIENTIA AND OXFORD UNI PARNTER FOR ALZHEIMER'S TREATMENT AI drug discovery company Exscientia, has announced its collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Research UK University of Oxford Drug Discovery Institute (ARUK-ODDI) to develop medicines targeting neuroinflammation for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. According to the World Health Organisation, Alzeheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia worldwide, with an estimated 44 million people living with it or related form of dementia. This new partnership combines Exscientia's AI-driven molecular design capabilities with the deep therapy area knowledge and technical expertise of the ARUK-ODDI. The collaboration will focus on a specific neuroinflammatory pathway implicated in the development of AD. Exscientia’s proven AI-driven technology will be applied to generate novel clinical assets targeting this pathway. FITBIT AND DIABETES UK TEAM UP UK diabetes charities, Fitbit and Diabetes UK have announced a new three-year partnership. Together they will work to educate Brits on the importance of understanding their own health and how leading a healthier and more active lifestyle can play a critical role in the prevention and management of all types of diabetes. The organisations will collaborate on a series of initiatives throughout 2021 and the coming years to encourage healthy behaviour change, including the One Million Step Challenge, to encourage participants to be more physically active. The challenge aims to encourage participants throughout the country to step-up their activity and take at least 10,000 steps a day to reach a one million step target at the end of the three-month challenge period. SAUDI GERMAN HOSPITALS GROUP REBRANDS Saudi German Hospitals Group (SGHG) has announced rebranding to Saudi German Health (SGH) in their first rebrand in 30 years. Led by SGH president, Makarem Sobhi Batterjee, the strategic decision was made in order to represent the group as a comprehensive healthcare network focused on all aspects of patient care. Launched in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a single hospital in 1988, today SGH has one of the largest footprints of any private healthcare provider in the MENA region, with several clinics and 11 hospitals across KSA, the UAE, Egypt, and Yemen. The group currently has projects under construction in Morocco and Pakistan. NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE PARTNERS WITH HEALTHWARE The Cancer Institute of Naples, Italy, has signed an agreement with healthcare consulting group, Healthware Group to promote and implement solutions and digital technologies in oncology. Aiming to ensure more precise and accessible treatments to patients, the agreement is focused on fostering research activities and digital therapies. Combining their areas of expertise, Healthware Group and Pascale Hospital will collaborate in order to facilitate clinical practice and ultimately improve the lives of patients. Roberto Ascione, CEO of Healthware Group said: "The clinical partnerships, based on data and technology, with international and national renowned institutions, such as the Pascale Hospital, offer the opportunity to implement innovative solutions aiming to improve the lives of patients. "There are many areas of the agreement's application, that will use Telehealth for the implementation of an innovative remote assistance model, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science for the development of algorithms through the mining of available retrospective data."