Saudi Arabia’s Healthcare Industry Goes Digital

Saudi Arabia is leading the way in digitalizing the wellness space, with a focus on improving quality care, patient experience, and sustainable health development. The Kingdom aims to restructure the health sector to create an effective, integrated, value-based ecosystem focused on patient health. To meet these ambitious goals, the government has committed to investing heavily in the health technology sector. The 2023 budget allocated over SR180 billion ($50.3 billion) to healthcare and social development, with much of this budget directed towards digital health initiatives to enhance accessibility, efficiency, and transparency within the healthcare system. Among these initiatives was creating a unified national electronic health record system, which acts as a comprehensive database to ensure patient data is accessible to medical professionals nationwide. The government is also working towards privatizing the healthcare industry, focusing on 290 government hospitals and 2,300 primary health centers in the Kingdom.