XR telehealth enterprise Caregility has successfully implemented its Caregility Cloud solution at Seha Virtual Hospital, it announced on Tuesday.
The virtual care hospital for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health offers over 30 clinical services across 130 hospitals nationwide. These facilities include emergency and critical advice, committees across disciplines, speciality clinics, home carers, and medical support services.
Caregility’s XR telehealth intensive care unit (ICU) provides support for roughly 5,000 remote sessions at 17 hospitals in the Kingdom.
XR Telehealth on the Rise
The announcement comes amid a rising trend in medical facilities shifting to virtual care solutions to boost patient turnaround times and outcomes. This greatly reduces pressure on in-house staff, allowing healthcare professionals to reach a wider demographic of patients.
Bob Zimmermann, Caregility’s Vice President of International Business Development, said that many healthcare organisations worldwide were “hurting” due to staff shortages and patient spikes, among other challenges.
He continued, stating,
“Our mission is to enable reliable virtual care delivery worldwide that universally improves patient access and better supports providers by bringing virtual engagement to bedside care. Seha’s swift onboarding of clinical staff and significant utilization in a short amount of time highlights the clinical and operational capabilities of the Caregility Cloud platform and the ease with which it can be quickly deployed and adopted globally”
Bin Guan, Caregility’s Chief Product and Innovation Officer, added that his firm’s Cloud platform offered a “secure, flexible, and scalable solution.”
He continued that Cargility could meet strict security needs “in any region of the world” by deploying across public and private infrastructure on leading platforms. These include Oracle Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Caregility Joins Informa’s Arab Health Conference 2023
The news comes as the Eatontown, New Jersey-based company expands its operations across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It kicked off its ambitious initiative at the 2023 Arab Health Conference and will attend from 30 January to 2 February in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
With Bob Zimmermann from .@caregility at the Arab Health Show in Dubai. pic.twitter.com/anIIEc0UhU
— Rajesh Narayanan (@RSN_Office) January 30, 2023
Informa Markets sponsored the event, which hosted over 53,000 attendees across 184 nations last year. This year’s exhibition aims to unite policymakers across the globe, healthcare platforms and experts, and analysts to collaborate on the future of the industry.
Wendy Deibert, Caregility’s Senior Vice President of Clinical Solutions, and Bryan Schnepf, Company Vice President of Marketing, hosted a session on enterprise and XR telehealth solutions at the event.
The healthcare enterprise also expanded across New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom amid a surge in nursing and patient engagement solutions.
Saudi Arabia, UAE Lead MENA Region in XR Telehealth
The news comes as the Saudi and Dubai governments aim to cement positions as top tech hubs in the region and worldwide. Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest energy supplier, became a top funder for immersive firm PIXO XR to train and upskill workers in the country.
The Kingdom recently announced a massive plan to fund tech startups supporting its Vision 2030 plan. This aims to invest in emerging technologies significantly, including artificial intelligence (AI), immersive technologies, blockchain, edge computing, and others.
The Saudi government aims to back the XR industry with its Creative Solutions tech hub incubator. The initiative’s Ithra Center hosts a regular boot camp for cohorts supported by Saudi and British experts across the XR industry.
Saudi XR firm Midwam has also supported the nation’s ecosystem and partnerships by developing creative content for global clients.
Stake in Magic Leap
Riyadh also acquired a majority stake in Magic Leap, allowing the firm a seat on the board of directors. The Plantation, Florida-based enterprise aims to become a major provider of augmented reality (AR) headsets to the global healthcare industry.
The news comes after the Magic Leap 2 headset received IEC 60601 medical certification for surgeons and other healthcare professionals. The device, set for release later in 2023, will provide doctors heads-up access to clinical charts, organs, visuals, and other data for procedural walkthroughs.
Dubai Enters Metaverse Race with XR Telehealth Platform
Regarding Dubai, it approved its Metaverse Strategy to boost its digital transformation with an outlined strategy. It hopes to incubate XR technologies, blockchain, digital twins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), machine learning (ML) and many others.
Additionally, it hopes to create over 40,000 jobs and boost the city’s economy by $4 billion USD annually over five year’s time, or up to 2025. Sectors involved in the initiative include remote work, law, healthcare, tourism, education, collaboration, and others.
One of the top platforms launched in Dubai includes the Ministry of Health and Prevention’s (MOHAP) healthcare metaverse. The new immersive portal accommodates citizens across the UAE with access to healthcare services, patient records, and data updates. Households in remote areas will benefit from the programme by receiving persistent and always-on access to medical care.
