The Ministry of Health will honor the winners of its innovation contest entitled “Innovate and Inspire” in Jeddah on Thursday. The ceremony will be held under the aegis of acting Health Minister Adel Fakeih.

Spokesman for the Health Mninistry Khalid Mirghalani told Arab News that the contest involved collecting as many as 5 million responses via social media to the question: “How can we live a healthy and fulfilling life?”

He added that the contest was also aimed at generating at least 2,000 workable ideas which could be translated into implementable projects to fight chronic diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure and obesity and promote health in general.

“We know that the Kingdom is witnessing an increase in chronic diseases mainly owing to lifestyle changes so we wanted to find ways which appeal to the public in dealing with and limiting the rate of these diseases through behavior medication,” he said.

The contest, he added was an outcome of a partnership between the Health Ministry and the Jeddah-based Health Sector Development Holding Company while the winners were selected by voting on social media in addition to the opinion of a panel of experts.