The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will host Riyadh Global Digital Health Summit (RGDHS) on August 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 two-day virtual summit will be organized by the Ministry of National Guard and the G20 Saudi Secretariat in collaboration with the Saudi Center for International Strategic Partnerships, which is a part of International Conferences program during the G20 Saudi Secretariat under the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's presidency year. 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. The program will represent all aspects of digital health and ensure a wide participation from experts across the world. CEO of Health Affairs at the Ministry of National Guard and President of RGDHS, Dr. Bandar bin Abdul Mohsen Al-Knawy commented saying: "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 world and advocate for accelerating digitalization as a core part of global 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. The Minister of Health Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawazan Al-Rabiah will chair the conclusion session of the declaration of RGDHS. The list of speakers at the summit will include the following names: His Excellency the Executive Director-General of Health Affairs at the Ministry of National Guard, President of King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences and President of Riyadh Global Digital Health Summit, Dr. Bandar bin Abdulmohsen Al-Knawy; His Excellency Director of the Saudi National Information Center Dr. Issam Al-Waqeet; Vice President of Australian Department of Health Professor Michael Kidd; Vice President and Head of Health at IBM and IBM Watson Health, Dr. Kyu Rhee; WHO Assistant Director-General for Antibiotic Resistance, Dr. Hanan Balkhy; Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School Professor David Bates; Head of Science at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control Dr. Mike Catchpole; Associate Professor in the Department of Knowledge Services Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Professor Yoshino Lee; Professor of Medicine and Senior Consultant in Patient Safety at the French High Health Authority Professor René Alperti; Undersecretary for Public Health at Saudi Ministry of Health Dr. Hani Jokhdar; Executive Director of Information Systems and Technology in Health Affairs At Ministry of National Guard Dr. Raed Al-Hazmi; Senior Lecturer at Imperial College University, UK Dr. Eric Falls and Regional Director of Healthcare Information and Management System Society (HIMSS), John Renner. The Summit will be livestreamed on Twitter and YouTube on 11 & 12 August from 2:00 p.m. local time of KSA (GMT+4).
