H.E. the Minister of Health, Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah, stated that MOH's Poison Control and Forensic Chemistry Centers are among the pioneering and outstanding specialized centers as far as their services and specialties are concerned, in addition to various government and private sectors benefiting from them. He pointed out that these specialized centers contribute to increasing utilization of cutting-edge technologies for all poisoning cases, in addition to outlining responsibilities in a manner that guarantees confidentiality and high quality performance. The importance of these centers also lies on their effective contribution in reducing the spread of illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, he said, pointing out that (Awtar) provides 21 integrated e-solution for the centers with documentation of all its working procedures starting from initiating requests by public and private agencies, through all analytical and consulting measures up to issuing e-reports.
During his patronage of (Awtar) Platform inauguration ceremony today (Thursday) in Riyadh, Al-Rabiah said, "Such digital transformation contributed to achieving an outstanding qualitative shift in performance, whether by improving accessibility to these centers from all beneficiaries or by facilitating activation of the centers' mobile lab services; thus, contributing to the success of a number of national projects". It also remarkably contributed to accelerating the centers' performance cycle, the matter which made the Office of World Summit Projects in Austria to declare (Awtar) as the best innovative digital platform in the Kingdom in the category of health and welfare for 2018. It was also nominated to compete with programs from more than 100 countries worldwide. Al-Rabiah extended his thanks and appreciation to those who helped to accomplish this important and vital project.
It is noted that (Awtar) Platform is coping with cutting-edge technologies in encryption of information and tracking samples in confidential and safe manner by using Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) and verifying user identification through the National Information Center (NIC) by using digital fingerprint, as well as e-signature.
The most important features of the platform are easy, comprehensive and rapid access to all information concerning drugs, toxins and analysis results, which enhance accuracy of diagnosis regarding emergencies, dosage calculation, determining causes of criminal death, reducing the spread of drugs and various psychotropic substances, minimizing human errors and accelerating response time. They also include linking mobile labs and keep them connected with the central data base in real time.
As well, the (Awtar) helps to provide vital information to develop the strategic plans to achieve the vision's objectives. It is estimated that the (Awtar) Platform has so far saved 18 million riyals a year, as a result of the optimum use of resources, reduced length of staying in hospitals, personal communication and reduced financial waste resulting from unnecessary examinations.
The Poison Control E-System's (Awtar) achievements include improving all beneficiaries' access to the services of the poison control and forensic chemistry centers, creating a huge and unified database in poison and forensic chemistry fields, reducing false and lost data from 70% to 3%, as well as minimizing the period spent dealing with emergency toxic cases from 8 hours to less than 2 hours. They also include pioneering in applying cutting-edge technologies to document and secure data, increasing productivity by 180%, unifying and developing work procedures at the centers by 76%, reducing expenditures by more than 85% and implementing and monitoring the highest performance quality standards. It is to be noted that a number of public and private sectors in the Kingdom benefit from (Awtar) including 56 security bodies, 48 governmental bodies, 58 MOH's hospitals, 141 healthcare centers, 259 private and semi-governmental companies, 39 military hospitals and 268 private health facilities (including hospitals, laboratories and healthcare centers).