Reem F. Bunyan
Neurologist at King Fahad Specialist Hospital
Title: Design and early implementation of new models of care; progress in the first health transformation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Biography
Biography: Reem F. Bunyan
Abstract
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is currently going through its first ever transformation in health and healthcare as part of the nation’s Vision 2030. The transformation initiative is driven by the urgency related to the rising number of people suffering from chronic diseases. At present, we have approximately 5 million people with chronic diseases and this number is expected to double by 2030 if no intervention is introduced. The cost of healthcare globally is also increasing exponentially with time, and thus the healthcare system in its current state is not sustainable.
The health transformation is informed by new person-centric models of care. The new models are driven by the needs of the recipient; the individual and the family in the population, with the objective to improve their physical, social, and emotional well-being. From the individual’s perspective, delivery is divided into six systems of care: keep them well, help them with their chronic disease, help them with their urgent care condition, help them have a safe pregnancy and childbirth, help them with their planned surgery, and finally help them with the last phase of their lives. Care delivery takes into account the entire spectrum of where the activities take place; at home, in the community, virtually, in primary care centers, or in hospitals. The spectrum of solutions in the new system needs integration and aims to provide value-based care and the triple aim objective.
After the approval of the national blueprint in 2017, initial experience in implementing the chronic disease system of care model took place in the Eastern region of the country with two care pathways for hypertension and sickle cell disease to extract early learnings and help plan regional and national rollout.