Saudi Armed Forces adopts e-health system

An electronic health system designed specifically for Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense is now operational.

The system, by Swedish ERP applications company IFS, has gone live with its first phase after successful tests, reported Saudi Gazette. Hundreds of thousands of paper and medical files of Armed Forces personnel had to be cataloged for the project.

Aiming to avoid duplication of records and streamline processes, the Arabic system is also linked to Nexus medical systems that are deployed in other hospitals in the Kingdom, as well as hundreds more hospitals around the world.

Arabian Company for Trade and Industrial System (Alcantara) was responsible for the installation of what’s believed to be the largest electronic health system in the country. They were also contracted to build five major information centers to serve different regions of the country.

"The contract covers a total of 26 hospitals and more than 100 polyclinics," said Eng. Khalid Al-Sulaimani, CEO and president of Alcantara Co. to Saudi Gazette .

"The Armed Forces hospitals in the north-western region of Tabuk were the first hospitals to successfully have a fully operational united information system, which was inaugurated in March 2007 by Prince Khalid Bin Sultan," he added.