e-Health is playing a significant role in driving healthcare evolution across the world. According to the World Health Organization, healthcare costs globally are increasing by nearly 5% annually and health systems see e-Health as contributing significantly to closing the gap between a decreasing financial envelope and growing demand.
It is not just financial impact that is driving the digital revolution. Health systems are also keen to tap into changing patient behaviour by capturing patient-generated data thus having a positive impact on streamlining health systems.
The Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) is positioning digital technology as the key enabler in delivering its vision of a fully integrated healthcare system. The MOH is investing in innovative and advanced technologies in e-Health such as MAWID for instance.
MAWID, which means appointment, is one of the several digital initiatives the MOH has launched. Designed to give service users power to manage their health journey and take greater ownership of their health, it centralizes and automates referrals across the health system by linking them electronically and streamlining their operations.
With MAWID, the MOH has successfully removed data sharing barriers so providers can easily share appointment calendars between themselves and with users, who now have the ability to book and manage their medical appointments instantaneously whenever and wherever they are; a new way of accessing service.
MAWID’s inbuilt functionality enables it to capture key patient information such as satisfaction scoring in real-time, which benefits MOH significantly providing access to invaluable qualified and quality health data to help in future service design for continuous improvement.
The app has achieved almost complete adoption in its first year, with 98% of hospitals and primary health care centres now linked to it and more than 6.5 million users registered for online facilities. It has significantly streamlined and reduced delays in the appointments system with, to date, more than 16 million appointments being processed.
MAWID is having marked impact on patient experience; surveys conducted among users revealing a 78% satisfaction rate for using MAWID. Combined with the introduction of 937, MOH’s central Call Centre line, the MOH is successfully integrating service access in a holistic, person-centric way.
“The reality is that the future is brighter with the use of technologies in health services,” explained Dr Tawfig AlRabiah, Saudi Minister of Health.
