RIYADH: The Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS) has launched a “Telemedicine” training program for remote patient contact. The program is open to all health practitioners, who will receive three hours training in the tools for treating patients remotely using digital technology. Fahd Al-Qatami, director of media department and SCFHS spokesperson, said that telemedicine helped to care for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Health to facilitate the provision of remote health services to patients, raise the quality of health services and save time, effort and cost to the patient and health practitioner alike. Al-Qatami said that the program launched by SCFHS aims to train health providers in the best global practices in telemedicine. “The program seeks to provide high-quality healthcare to the patient in line with the new health care model, while avoiding malpractices during the provision of healthcare through telemedicine that may affect the patient’s privacy or correct diagnosis,” said Al-Qatami.