RIYADH – Saudi Arabia will host Riyadh Global Digital Health Summit (RGDHS) on Aug. 11-12, bringing together leaders of healthcare systems, public health, digital health, academic institutions and businesses to discuss the vital role of digital health in the fight against current and future pandemics. The virtual two-day summit, organized by the Ministry of National Guard's Health Affairs Department, in collaboration with the Saudi Center for International Strategic Partnerships, is part of the G20 calendar under the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's presidency. It follows the G20 Extraordinary Summit held on 26th March 2020, during which G20 member countries expressed their commitment to providing a united front to combatting COVID-19. A well-structured event program will represent all aspects of digital health and ensure wide participation from experts across the world. Faisal Almajed, RGDHS spokesman and a General Director at the King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, commented: "The pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated appreciation for technological solutions, so healthcare professionals must now seize this opportunity to build on previous strides forward in digital health and advocate for accelerated digitalization as a core part of countries' recovery plans." "RGDHS is far more than a healthcare conference; it is a global digital platform bringing together people who have the ability to work collaboratively to accelerate our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, paving the way for a united effort to manage the crisis and build capacity and resilience for the future." Before the action-orientated summit concludes with a "Riyadh Declaration" that will set out a roadmap for accelerating digital health innovations to fight the current and future pandemics, summit participants will hear from an expert line-up of speakers on a range of topics including digital epidemiology, pandemic prediction models, behavioral medicine, digital public health, AI, wellness technologies and telehealth.
