His Excellency the Minister of health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, confirmed on the keenness of the Ministry of Health (MOH) to support and promote the innovators, spread this culture throughout all health domains, and develop the concept of initiative and creativity, hoping that all these lead us to the development of health services in concordance with the modern scientific approach.
During the inauguration of the festival yesterday, which is the first of its kind in the Ministry of Health, Dr Al-Rabeeah pointed out that the health domain in the Kingdom witnesses rapid development nowadays, due to adopting the approach of creativity and initiative that is to be achieved by the development of medical services for all citizens. In addition, Dr. Al-Rabeeah indicated that the Ministry provided a proper environment for achieving this approach, supported the scientific research and sponsored global conferences; so as to take advantage of the national and international experiences in this field.
For his part, the Executive General Manager of King Fahad Medical City (KFMC), Dr. Abdullah bin Suleiman Al-Amro, has lauded the keenness of His Excellency the Minister of Health to attend and inaugurate the “Innovation Festival”, which is the first at the level of the health sector in the Kingdom, calling for the development of the creative ideas on the information and technology in the health services.
Al-Amro pointed out that the Innovation Festival aims to bring the creative ideas that will develop health services by offering experiences and discussing initiatives undertaken by individuals or competent authorities. “In this spirit,” he added, “a constellation of selected local and global speakers of different specialties participate to take advantage of their expertise; so as to achieve the desired objective of such activities and carry out the creative community that supports talent, and cares for the mechanism of supporting creative projects and moving them from mere ideas into profitable projects useful to the homeland and the citizens.”
Following the festival, Dr. Al-Rabeeah launched the exhibition annexed to the Festival, in which the departments interested in the field of creativity at the Medical City participated, in addition to the participation of other individual and institutional bodies of interest to the field of development and innovation.
Furthermore, The festival comprises participations of a number of creators and inventors from inside and outside the Kingdom, as well as a number of sectors interested in the creative domain. The activities of the festival lasts for two days, including a worksheet on: “How did the health systems in the United States of America get to creativity?” by Dr. Dan Ziasmar from the University of Minnesota, USA. Besides, the activities include a paper on: “Towards a Creative Community” presented by Dr. Salman Al-Ouda, a member of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) and another one entitled: “Five Requirements For Creativity” submitted by Dr. Chocanta from Stanford University, USA. Moreover, MOH Undersecretary of Planning and Health Economics, Dr. Mohammad Al-Yemeni, will be speaking about the determinants of innovation in the Ministry of Health, while the Saudi inventor Muhannad Abu Deyah will be talking about: “Creating Innovators for Invention”. Afterwards, there is a worksheet on the: “Intellectual Property Rights” provided by Eng. Samy Al-Sudais from King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), aside from a paper on the: “Development Program of Emergency Departments” presented by Dr. Saleh Al-Tamimi, head of the organizing committee of the festival.