RIYADH: The National Health Information Center (NHIC) in association with the Saudi Health Council (SHC) organized Ideathon 2019 on Saturday in order to set a benchmark in emerging health care technology. Organized under the patronage of Health Minister Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah, who is also the chairman of the SHC, the objective was to enable the brightest national minds to create digital solutions through emerging technologies in an innovative ecosystem to enhance the quality of health care services in the Kingdom. Speaking at the opening session, Hashem Abu Baker, general director of the NHIC, presented an overview of Ideathon 2019, an intensive and brainstorming event to help young talents generate fresh solutions to existing challenges in their communities. According to the organizers the overall objective is to explore insights on health innovation by sharing international and local best practices to improve patient health outcomes and understand the impact of innovation on quality and cost of health care services.HIGHLIGHT The NHIC’s idea was to help the health care sector in further enhancing the quality of services being provided to the community. The purpose is to create platform to brainstorm and share innovative ideas, market and promote the creation of the National Lab for Emerging Technology, engage potential stakeholders from academia, government and private sector in the lab ecosystem, raise awareness of emerging technologies and their impact on the health care sector and offer a fun and exciting way for young talent to get involved in their communities. Participants at the event worked in teams to brainstorm on possible solutions. Speaking to Arab News, Abeer Al-Olyan, co-founder and CEO of health care startup Liven, said: “Our project is about chronic disease — it is very important to collect data to enhance the health care system in the Kingdom.” Praising the event she said: “We have had health care hackathons, but Ideathon is being held for the first time.”