The Global Health Exhibition in Saudi Arabia, which welcomed over 1,240 exhibiting brands from 40 countries, saw SAR50 billion ($13.3 billion) worth of deals signed in three days.
The exhibition, organized by Tahaluf, is one of the biggest healthcare events in the world, with an attendance of over 105,000 guests and 500 expert speakers.
The free-to-attend event, held under the theme ‘Invest in Health’, took place at the Riyadh Convention & Exhibition Centre, Malham, from October 21 to 23, 2024.
The event, now in its seventh edition, saw a 72 percent increase in international attendance from over 138 countries. The number of exhibiting brands was four times more than last year. Moreover, more than 50 percent of these brands were international.
Read: Cityscape Global 2024 to welcome over 400 exhibitors with future of living in focus
“We aim to position Saudi Arabia as a hub for addressing current and future global challenges, following a unified government approach under Vision 2030. This is based on the principle of ‘health in all policies’ by developing regulations that encourage investment in innovation, building a healthcare system that unleashes the power of digital solutions and artificial intelligence, and developing local healthcare talent while attracting the best minds from around the world. These efforts are driving us forward in our health transformation with concrete and measurable steps,” said His Excellency Fahd bin Abdurrahman Al-Jalajel, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Health.
Star attraction
The center of attention at the exhibition was a fully virtual reality and augmented reality-enabled virtual hospital.
The exhibit, built around the principles of Saudi Arabia’s SEHA Virtual Hospital, gave Global Health Exhibition attendees a glimpse of the world’s future healthcare services. The SEHA Virtual Hospital, opened in 2022 in response to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, is among the world’s first endeavors to introduce large-scale virtual care to mainstream health services.
The virtual hospital utilizes artificial intelligence to rank and prioritize urgent patient needs where intervention is required. Using advanced algorithms, it is capable of rapidly processing imaging for stroke diagnosis, brain CT scans and lung disease diagnosis. It also utilizes internet-of-things technology enabling continuous virtual monitoring of patients living with heart failure. This is particularly important for patients living in remote or rural regions where physical travel to a hospital environment is difficult or impossible.
Multiple conferences
Global Health Exhibition opened with five key platforms: the Leaders’ Summit, Medical Excellence Forum, Digital Health Forum, Investor Forum, and a Health Transformation Forum. Other highlights include the NUPCO Health Innovation Hackathon, the Vision NextGen startup competition, and unique onsite experiences including 3D medical diagnostics, the Medical Escape Room Challenge, and sporting activities, with prizes exceeding SAR2 million awarded to attendees throughout the event.
The Leaders’ Summit heard from leading health sector author Professor Mark Britnell, who discussed the global health workforce crisis, highlighted by the World Health Organization, which reveals acute staffing shortages across state owned health systems worldwide. The crisis, if unaddressed, will make most countries’ health systems unsustainable, with an estimated worldwide staff shortfall of 18 million by 2030, he explained.
Key partnerships
Several deals, MoUs and partnerships were signed during the three-day exhibition. These included a cooperation agreement between the Saudi state-owned Health Holding Company and Huawei, as well as a partnership agreement between the Council of Health Insurance and the Johns Hopkins Center.
MoUs were also signed between the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health and Ascend Solutions, and AlRamz Medical Company and GSK.
The popularity of GHE and the volume of deals signed indicates that the Kingdom is advancing its Vision 2030 goals, leading in the field of transitioning experimental medtech into real world clinical practice.
“The show has doubled in size, to 80,000 square meters, the size of 11 football fields. Cultivating the next generation of healthcare talent was a defining goal of Global Health Exhibition and attendees have witnessed the world of healthcare services as it will look two decades from now, with AI integration and robotics taking centre stage in mainstream health services,” said Rachel Sturgess, senior vice president, Tahaluf.
“The Global Health Exhibition 2024 has been three energetic days of inspiration in the world of healthcare – underpinned by SAR50 billion in investments. GHE has seen numerous innovative collaborations and as the biggest b2b events’ organiser in the Kingdom, Tahaluf is delighted to bring the world’s leading healthcare brands to this region,” added Mike Champion, Tahaluf co-founder and CEO.
Mike Champion and Rachel Sturgess were also behind the launch of Cityscape Global in Riyadh in 2023, which saw it become the world’s most attended property event in its first edition since moving from Dubai.
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