DUBAI: Among Saudi Arabia’s ambitious goals to transform its economy is to invest in the development of its healthcare industry – and a local health technology startup is taking advantage of it.
Clinicy provides a healthcare management system for bookings, appointments, and patient communication, and claims to be the only startup to offer the proprietary digital platform.
The technology is backed up by two years of research by its founders – Talal Waleed Al-Hussein, His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Abdullah Al-Faisal, and Abdullah Alobaid – who identified several issues faced by the Kingdom’s healthcare system.
Some of which include missed appointments, high administrative operating costs, and the lack of tools in patient engagement.
It was not particularly difficult for Clinicy to sell their product, as medical institutions increasingly realized the importance of adopting technology to deliver the best patient care.
Al-Hussein said the market adoption of their technology was “far beyond our expectations” and their clients have already witnessed positive results.
“Their no-show rate has decreased by not more than 40 percent. 61 percent of their day-to-day operations was automated, and they recorded a 30 percent reduction in operational costs,” he explained, highlighting its estimate of SR2.2 billion ($580 million) losses because of missed appointments.
Clinicy co-founder Alobaid said deploying automation and other digital tools to medical institutions are core to the startup’s mission.
“Medical practitioners should focus on medicine, and leave the operations to us,” he told Arab News.
This was affirmed recently by a seven-figure capital injection from Riyadh-based Mad’a Investment Company, which has shown interest in investment opportunities in the Kingdom’s healthcare sector.
Its CEO Abdullah Abdulaziz Al-Othaim said Clinicy could “transform and enhance healthcare services across the entire region.”
Al-Hussein said Mad’a’s investment is critical to Clinicy’s growth given the firm’s prior investments in other healthcare companies including Smartmed and Smartlab, which both leverage technology in their products and services.
The investment comes as the Kingdom embarks on a transformation program that includes “restructuring the health sector to be comprehensive, effective, and integrated,” according to the Saudi Vision 2030 website.
A previous report by international research firm Frost & Sullivan said the Kingdom plans to invest $250 billion in healthcare infrastructure over the next decade, especially as the population is expected to grow to 39.4 million by 2030.
Although Clinicy mainly operates in central areas of Saudi Arabia, it plans to use the recent investment to reach other regions and onboard more medical institutions to their network.
Al-Hussein said: “Saudi Arabia remains the biggest economy in the Gulf. It is a huge nation, so it requires a lot of effort to expand our coverage.”
This is in line with the Kingdom’s goal for 88 percent of its population, including those in rural areas, to have access to inclusive health services by 2025.
“We are very optimistic about the medical industry, and we believe that the growth in population and services, as well as the development of infrastructure will all get to a point of success for all stakeholders,” he said.
Clinicy also has plans to expand outside Saudi Arabia, and target companies across the Middle East and Africa region.
