Implementation of digital health technology at academic medical centers in saudi arabia

cademic Medical Centers [AMCs] in Saudi Arabia are dedicated to providing high-quality patient care and promoting the health and wellbeing of its citizens. Additionally, they provide medical education and conduct research in a wide range of clinical disciplines. A recent global trend in academic hospitals with mandates similar to those in Saudi Arabia is that they have started utilizing digital health technology in a bid to increase efficiency and improve the quality of patient care. This paper takes the position that such digital health technologies should also be utilized in AMC settings in Saudi Arabia. Electronic health records [EHRs], smartphones, video-imaging technologies, virtual desktop infrastructures, mobile EHR access, and smart-beds can help AMCs serve patients more effectively. Rural people can be connected to consultants at AMCs using these technologies using virtual self-care tools. Validation of new digital health devices can be performed in collaboration with digital health partners and serve to enrich the knowledge of medical students in the area of digital health. This review aims to draw the attention of stakeholders to the need to implement digital health technology in AMCs in Saudi Arabia and help improve the quality of healthcare

Beta[2]-adrenergic receptor gene polymorphisms in normal and in patients with myocardial infarction in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia

Introduction: Single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs] of the beta[2]-adrenergic receptor [beta[2]-AR] gene have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. This study evaluated two beta[2]-AR SNPs in association with myocardial infarction [MI], namely arginine-glycine [G16R] substitution at codon 16 and glutamine-glutamic [Q27E] substitution at condon 27

Objectives: Therefore, our main objective was to determine the association of these two SNPs among patients with MI with and without type 2 diabetes [T2D]

Materials and Methods: Blood samples were collected from 201 MI patients with and without diabetes and from 115 controls and the beta[2]-AR gene polymorphisms at codon 16 and codon 27 were assessed by restriction fragment length polymorphism. The CHI[2] test was used to compare differences between groups

Results: The SNPs did not deviate significantly from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in the control population. The allele and genotype frequencies of the beta[2]-AR gene polymorphism at codon 16 [G16R] was significantly different between MI cases and controls [CHI[2] = 10.495, P < 0.05 and CHI[2] = 8.849, P < 0.05, respectively]. No significant difference in genotype and allele frequencies at codon 27 was shown between these two groups [CHI[2] = 2.661, P >/= 0.05 and CHI[2] = 1.587, P >/= 0.05, respectively]. When the MI patients with and without T2D were pooled together, genotype distribution was different between cases and controls at codon 16 [CHI[2] = 4.631, P = 0.099] and codon 27 [CHI[2] = 7.247, P = 0.027]. However, no significant differences were found in allele frequencies for codon 16 and codon 27 between the two groups [CHI[2] = 0.628, P = 0.428; CHI[2] = 0.33, P = 0.565, respectively]

Conclusion: Our findings indicate a moderate association of the beta[2]-AR G16R gene polymorphism with MI suggesting that this gene plays a universal role in the development of MI across ethnicities. However, there was no association of beta[2]-AR G16R gene polymorphism with diabetic patients with MI