The Ministry of Investment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (MISA) and Agility, a supply chain services, infrastructure, and innovation firm, inked a memorandum of understanding to explore ways to fortify the Saudi healthcare sector by bringing state-of-the-art health technology and services to the Kingdom, while also supporting new job creation and knowledge transfer.

Agility and MISA have agreed to investigate four potential areas of cooperation in the healthcare industry. According to Zawya, this includes the possibility of growing digital health services and localising the supply chain for cutting-edge new medical technologies.

It also entails helping Agility’s technology ventures partners set up regional offices in the Kingdom in order to draw in Saudi talent and encourage the transfer of vital medical and supply chain knowledge.

Saudi Arabia is modernising its healthcare system as part of its Vision 2030 national strategic plan. The objectives of the Healthcare Sector Transformation Programme are to increase the role of private sector investment, modernise facilities, and improve access to care.

Through the MOU, Saudis will have greater access to technology and preventative healthcare services to combat chronic illnesses including breast cancer and cardiovascular disease. By bringing in businesses that, for instance, enable early detection of heart problems and monitoring of heart health indicators and other biosignals via simple mobile phone selfie images, and that make breast cancer screenings more widely and easily accessible via high-resolution imagery technology that is highly efficient and low-cost, MISA and Agility are looking into ways to expand e-health services in the Kingdom.