THUWAL, Saudi Arabia — King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) formalized their collaboration with Lean Business Services, the digital arm of the Saudi health sector, by signing a memorandum of understanding to continue R&D activities related to artificial intelligence (AI) and data science with the aim to achieve a "smart health" ecosystem in the Kingdom. Lean Business Services is a government-owned company operating under the Ministry of Health and working as a key enabler of e-health innovation in the Kingdom through its digitization initiatives and products. During the COVID-19 pandemic, KAUST and Lean Business Services collaborated to assist the Saudi Ministry of Health in their decision-making process by providing trends and analysis of the spread of COVID-19, using advanced AI tools. "The global pandemic pushed innovation in healthcare to the forefront of the global agenda. Here at KAUST we immediately pivoted our research to finding solutions, but we didn't do it alone. We collaborated with our partners to discover, test and ultimately implement new technologies. The partnership with Lean is an example of harnessing KAUST's advanced computing power and expertise to process an enormous volume of healthcare data with life-changing outcomes for the Kingdom," said Kevin Cullen, vice president for Innovation and Economic Development at KAUST. Abdullah Alzeer, research and development manager at Lean Business Services further commented, "KAUST gave us access to their world-leading researchers and their supercomputer — Shaheen — this made it possible for us to provide the healthcare sector with insightful and accurate information to inform their decisions and make Saudi Arabia a safer place to live throughout this pandemic." The partnership between KAUST and Lean Business Services is a natural fit, as many of their goals and objectives are aligned. With their mutual objective of optimizing healthcare, Lean provides e-services, process optimization, data analytics, and business efficiency. By making use of KAUST's world-leading research in big data, artificial intelligence, and data science, these solutions can be improved to make remarkable impacts in the healthcare sector of Saudi Arabia. Looking to the future, one of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 objectives in healthcare is to enhance access and improve quality while maintaining costs. Working together, the cooperation between Lean and KAUST aims to continue the development of AI and advanced analytics solutions which will enable the healthcare system in Saudi Arabia to achieve those objectives.
