Health IT provider Orion Health from New Zealand has been appointed to build a health information exchange for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

According to a press statement, the system will provide a single, holistic view of medical and care information of around 32 million people at launch, with capacity to cover more than 50 million people. What is expected to be the "world's largest" HIE will take data feeds from over 5,000 government and private healthcare providers.

WHY IT MATTERS

Orion Health, which provides population health solutions across 15 countries, said the Kingdom wanted them to set up a data ecosystem that will enable it to analyse and manage large scale disease outbreaks, pandemics, and growing chronic conditions like diabetes by applying machine learning and AI. It also needs a system "that allows clinicians to make informed decisions and help keep people healthier, happier and out of hospital".

"Heading into a post-pandemic world, Saudi Arabia is the first country to revolutionise the delivery of healthcare for their citizens through technology and many others will follow," said Orion Health founder and CEO Ian McCrae.