Digital Transformation as a Pillar of Healthcare
Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population, emphasized during the Cairo ICT 2026 exhibition the necessity for health institutions to adopt generative artificial intelligence and cloud computing technologies. The Minister noted that technological development imposes new challenges on physicians, but at the same time provides vital tools to improve diagnostic accuracy and accelerate medical interventions, citing the National Stroke Network which aims to utilize the "golden hour" to save patients' lives.
Service Governance and Spending Rationalization
The Minister explained that digital transformation has contributed to enhancing the governance of health services, as the Ministry launched the "Nephro Egypt" platform to monitor dialysis patients, which serves approximately 60,000 citizens. The platform has contributed to saving between 20% to 25% of the annual cost of the service, with the implementation of facial recognition technologies to verify the provision of service. He also pointed to the automation of treatment decisions at the state's expense, which reduced the waiting period from 10 days to a maximum of 24 hours.
New Legislative Framework for Health Data
The Minister revealed the Ministry's intention to submit a new draft law to the House of Representatives aimed at regulating the framework and national strategies for health databases. This legislation aims to ensure the existence of a unified system under the authority of the Ministry of Health, enhancing data governance and security, in integration with existing personal data protection and anti-information technology crimes laws.
Integration Between Public and Private Sectors
The Minister and representatives of the private sector, such as Orange Egypt, stressed that the partnership between the public and private sectors is a fundamental pillar for the sustainability of digital transformation. They emphasized the importance of the concept of "Interoperability" to ensure the secure transfer of health information between various institutions, which expands the scope of medical services to reach remote areas through telemedicine applications.
Bridging the Gap Between Training and Employment
On another note, Engineer Amr Abdel Rahman, Executive Director of Next Technology, reviewed the "Readiness to Job Profile" platform, which aims to measure the actual job readiness of trainees instead of relying solely on academic certificates. The platform provides a customized roadmap for each individual, helping companies select technically qualified personnel and reducing the gap between educational outputs and actual labor market requirements.