Saudi’s $1tn+ NEOM megaproject “poised to redefine the future of healthcare”
Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion + futuristic megaproject NEOM is not just aiming to build something unprecedented from an engineering, architectural and urban design perspective. Its plans for shaking up healthcare are equally radical. We spoke to Mahmoud AlYamany, NEOM’s Sector Head, Health and Wellbeing, to learn more about this.
NEOM is probably the world’s most ambitious megaproject. The urban area’s main component is a futuristic ‘linear smart city’, built in a 170 km long straight line that is just 200 metres wide, and half a kilometre tall.
The gargantuan structure will supposedly house close to 10 million residents within its shiny reflective walls when it is completed. All services and amenities will be contained within the structure, including vertical farms, and residents will be transported through it by super fast public transit. And everything will be powered by clean energy.
The project is so ambitious that many doubt it will ever be completed. Work has begun on building the foundations, but, according to an article released by Bloomberg in April, only 2.4 km of The Line will be completed by 2030 (when it was originally meant to be more or less fully completed), housing just 300,000. Doubts have also been raised over whether the project can be as environmentally sustainable as it is aiming to be.
The project has faced other criticisms. The BBC reported last month claims of an exiled Saudi colonel that Saudi forces were told to kill local villagers if they resisted being removed and rehoused to make way for the project.
Many rivers to cross (the current state of The Line)
One feature of the project which hasn’t received as much media attention is its plans to reinvent healthcare.
Mahmoud AlYamany, NEOM’s Sector Head, Health and Wellbeing, explained to HBI that NEOM offers a unique opportunity to build an entirely new type of health system from scratch.
NEOM’s health system is being designed to address what AlYamany says are the three major challenges facing health systems globally: quality of care; access; and (cost) sustainability.
“From a quality care perspective, NEOM will provide the highest quality of well-being and healthcare to its residents who opt-in,” AlYamany says.
The system will be built around what AlYamany refers to as ‘the 4P approach’ – Personalised, Predictive, Proactive, Preventative.
“The focus on prevention will significantly reduce the need for ongoing medical interventions, enabling NEOM to provide high-quality personalised care to all residents.”
The personalised element will be supported by building ‘digital twins’ for each NEOM resident.
“The digital twin will be a living and growing avatar of the resident, built on their genome sequencing data from omics, wearables, environment-sensors, behaviours, nutrition, excretions, and ongoing encounters with the healthcare system. We will use AI to predict potential diseases based on an individual’s profile and other specific variables,” AlYamany says.
“The digital twin system will facilitate continuous health monitoring through AI, reducing the need for direct healthcare-provider interaction. When necessary, users can connect with providers, enhancing both access and knowledge. This system will reduce the number of healthcare professionals needed and provide tailored recommendations based on comprehensive data, improving health outcomes and resource utilisation.”
Continuously collecting data on residents’ every movement may sound like a dystopian nightmare from a privacy perspective. AlYamany assured us, however, that residents will have to give their consent to their data being collected and there will be transparency and “robust privacy regulations” for how it is used.
AlYamany says that, eventually, the digital twins will have so much data that clinical trials will be able to be performed on them, instead of on humans:
“The digital twin will allow a longitudinal healthcare study to provide greater insight into long-term health and medical outcome-based trials – computer-based simulations of how a drug or disease impacts physiological and clinical outcomes. This approach empowers individuals to take control of their health, while having the choice to opt in to various services such as genome sequencing.
“Based on comprehensive resident data that will be protected through state of the art cybersecurity, we will be able to predict what will happen to an individual in 10 or 20 years based on data that flows minute by minute, capturing changes happening in real-time.”
The digital twins will also enable healthcare providers to give residents much more personalised health recommendations.
“The personalised nature of our healthcare approach is key – it will empower residents to take control of their health as opposed to traditional systems that are more prescriptive in nature. This is backed by research in behavioural science that has shown a strong correlation between stronger individualisation of recommendations and patient compliance. The digital twin has now passed proof of concept, with a minimally viable product expected by the beginning of 2025 and full deployment by 2026.”
AlYamany says the digital twin system and the continuous collection of data will also address the issue of access.
“We will ensure access by basing our strategy on equal and equitable healthcare access for all residents, which will be delivered in a coordinated and convenient manner through various channels and locations. Offering a streamlined insurance process is one way to do this. Based on the rich, comprehensive data based on the digital twin model, the system would identify and approve investigations immediately. This will resolve issues around lack of insight on resident behaviour and when to increase or decrease individual insurance costs.
“The system will be primarily funded through employer funded premiums, which are administered by an insurance company working collaboratively with the healthcare provider on ensuring a joint focus on the health outcomes of individuals. From an investors point of view, the opportunity would vary depending on which element they would invest in, e.g. buildings for rent vs. a service provider within the system. If specifically asked with regards to the insurer, the opportunity would likely be related to operational contracts rather than an investment in a commercial insurance operation.
“This collaboration will help identify diseases and risks more effectively, turning insurers from obstacles into supporters. While the insurance system will still rely on contributions from employers, better integration between insurers and providers will reward residents for healthy behaviours, and encourage providers to focus on effective investigation, intervention, and prevention, with payments based on patient outcomes rather than the volume of treatments. We are also studying demand and capacity to enhance healthcare efficiency and sustainability in The Line. The model aims to revolutionise healthcare delivery through 10 specialty hospitals, interconnected by fast transportation, reducing costs and attracting health tourism.
“Such an approach will also reduce healthcare costs making for a more sustainable system in the long-term. A Longevity-Enabling Environment that emphasises an active lifestyle, development of green spaces, and ensures access to healthy food will allow people to work better and longer, contributing to the GDP at a much higher value. The approach will reduce the need for hospital-based infrastructure, making expensive medications, and costly interventions. The inevitable reduction in sick days will also increase productivity and drive economic growth.”
When asked whether all this will work in practice, AlYamany said: “Time will tell, but I have every reason to believe that our world-class expertise in healthcare and data will bring this revolutionary approach to fruition. Many approaches and technologies we thought were not possible in the past are a reality today. Twenty years ago, we talked about genome sequencing as an alien concept that would be seen in a hundred years. Today, we are using it to successfully intervene with certain diseases such as thalassemia, an inherited blood disease that impacts the production of red blood cells.
“When it comes to data collection, the Super AI, through the hypothetical artificial intelligence that demonstrates intelligence beyond human capabilities, will help extract and compute data on residents in seconds in what would otherwise take several months. NEOM is currently working on the data architecture and its predictability while ensuring data security. In short, 4P health care is closer to reality than many would think.”
NEOM will be sharing more about the company’s radical vision to transform healthcare at HBI 2024 next week, on a panel entitled ‘The new healthcare powerhouse: Saudi Arabia’.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Martin De Benito Gellner or call 0207 183 3779.
