Submission ID 118393
| Issue/Objective | The crucial lessons learned from battle with COVID-19 has transformed the healthcare landscape across the world. Digital health or telemedicine are not new concepts but the post-pandemic demands of accessible and equitable healthcare revolutionized the adaptation of AI-driven organizational models and policies; countries like US, China, UK, Australia and India being the foremost examples. |
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| Methodology/Approach | Mix method qualitative case study based on document analysis, Diffusion of Innovation Theory framework |
| Results | The Middle East, principally, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia KSA took advancing health technology to a cutting edge status in-line with their Vision 2030 Health Sector Transformation Goals and executed establishing SEHA Virtual Hospital (SVH), officially recognized as World's largest Virtual Hospital in Oct 2024. Connecting over 200 hospitals across the country, and serving 450,000 patients (currently) with 40 specialties, SEHA' is adamant to keep-up with regulations supported innovation and collaboration between policymakers, healthcare professionals and technology experts in order to provide a realistic environment for the model to progress further. The Kingdom's Ministry of Health (MOH), as a testament of the progress of SVH claims that this integration of AI in digital health has improved health services accessibility to 94% (compared to 81% in 2016), and average life expectancy to have scaled up to 77.6% (compared to 74% in 2016). |
| Discussion/Conclusion | Evaluating, how KSA managed to achieved a "culturally imperialistic" AI-driven masterwork, grounded in Islamic Ethical Ideologies is the most fascinating aspect of this research. With pressing global health challenges like rising healthcare costs, health work-force shortages, and accessibility, understanding this model has not only motivated policymakers for AI-driven solutions but also, highlighted the relative advantage of AI health models in disaster preparedness for imminent public health crisis. This case study paves a pathway for other countries to adopt similar AI and digital health integration strategies for achieving equitable and accessible healthcare. As the demand of AI-driven health sector gains momentum, more empirical research is needed to address AI implementation challenges, and ethical dilemmas. |
| Presenters and affiliations | Nudrat Rasool Queen Mary University of London Nudrat Rasool Queen Mary University of London |
