The Ministry of Health recently signed a five-year partnership with the British Medical Journal (BMJ), one of the world’s leading medical knowledge providers, during a ceremony at the Department of Health in London.

Saudi Health Minster Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah and the UK’s Undersecretary of State for Health, Anne Soubry, were both present at the event.

This initiative forms part of the Saudi government’s 20-year work force transformation strategy to improve the consistency and quality of health care in the Kingdom.

The partnership agreement with BMJ provides health care professionals in the ministry open access to resources such as BMJ Best Practice, which offers fast and easy access to the latest research evidence, guidelines and expert opinions at hospitals, clinics or on mobile devices, enabling clinicians to make the best decisions for their patients.

“Thousands of health care professionals employed by ministry hospitals, the National Guard, the Ministry of Defense and Aviation, the Ministry of Interior and private hospitals will benefit from open access to a selection of BMJ’s renowned evidence-based journals, learning, decision support and quality improvement resources,” Al-Rabeeah said at the launching ceremony.

“Online services are being introduced to help medics and paramedics stay up-to-date with the latest advances in the field of medicine,” he said.

BMJ CEO Tim Brooks said: “The agreement provides clinicians across the Kingdom with the very best tools to develop their knowledge and skills, practice evidence-based medicine and improve outcomes for their patients, with access to medical information covering 10,000 topics in over 20 specialties.”

“The BMJ is committed to achieving high quality, evidence-based health care for patients throughout the world. We are very proud that the Kingdom has chosen to collaborate with us on this important project and we look forward to sharing our expertise with the medical work force of this country,” he said.

Clinicians will also have free online access to seven key BMJ journals covering the latest research, news and expert opinions. These include Heart, Gut, DTB (Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin), EMJ (Emergency Medicine Journal), the British Journal of Ophthalmology, the BJSM (British Journal of Sports Medicine) and the Journal of Clinical Pathology.

Another major resource is BMJ Learning, which is a fully accredited online learning module covering over 1,000 medical specialties and clinical areas, allowing clinicians to study at their own pace and convenience.

In addition, clinicians also have access to BMJ Quality, an online platform which supports individuals and teams through health care improvement projects and publication in the BMJ Quality Improvement Reports journal.