Health prizes worth SR 1 million instituted

The King Fahd Medical City (KFMC) announced the launch of contests carrying SR 1million worth prizes for inventions in the field of health.
The Ministry of Health, Bader for Biotechnology Program, King Saud Medical City, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center and Riyadh Technology Valley are participating in the organization of the prize.
“The contests are being organized with the aim of fulfilling KFMC’s commitment to offer safe and high quality medical care based on studies, research and training,” said Mahmoud Al-Yamani, executive director general of the KFMC, in a statement reported by the Saudi Press Agency.
Every member of the medical sector in the Kingdom can participate in the contest, said chairman of the organizing committee of the contest Aed Al-Qahtani.
The contest also seeks to sow the seeds of inventiveness in the health sector, Al-Qahtani said.
The areas of contest are e-health, smart hospital system, medical equipment, biotechnology, health care, and health education and training, he added.
The committee has started a campaign for contest registration with visits to leading hospitals and health centers in Riyadh including King Abdulaziz Medical City of the National Guard, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, King Saud Military Medical City, two hospitals run by the King Saud University and the King Khaled Specialist Ophthalmic Hospital in addition to a number of large private hospitals, he said.
“The contest supports creative and ambitious projects that strive to find solutions to the challenges in the health sector,” said Mariam Al-Mutairy, a member of the contest committee. “It also encourages individuals and establishments to come up with brilliant ideas that are practicable and would lead to improve the Kingdom’s health care sector.”
She said the three stages of the contest involves registration and evaluation of ideas and announcement of qualified participants, display of the ideas to a scientific committee after training the qualified persons in the skill to present their ideas. In the third phase, qualified participants from the second phase will present their ideas to an investment committee and then the winners will be announced, she added.
Participants should be Saudis or expatriate residents and should provide all information requested on the website for the contest at http:hcinnovation.org.
The deadline is July 15. The results will be announced on Nov. 4.