The HIE will take data feeds from more than 5,000 governmental and private healthcare providers to create a single, holistic view of every single patient's medical and care information. At launch the exchange will cover 32 million people, and will have the capacity to grow to well over 50 million.

Orion Health founder and CEO, Ian McCrae, says he can't imagine being a clinician forced to make decisions based on incomplete information.

"Globally, there are too many clinicians operating without all the details regarding medications, lab results, diagnoses and medical history. As a result, patient health is often compromised and in some situations with serious consequences.

"Saudi Arabia is picking another path. Heading into a post-pandemic world, Saudi Arabia is the first country to revolutionise the delivery of healthcare for their citizens through technology and many others will follow," says McCrae.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia briefed Orion Health to create a system that allows clinicians to make informed decisions and help keep people healthier, happier and out of hospital. The brief is also to create an ecosystem of data that enables the Kingdom to apply machine learning and AI to analyse and better manage large scale disease outbreaks, pandemics and ongoing chronic conditions such as diabetes.

"Every clinician deserves to have simple, safe and secure access to the right information, at the right time. At Orion Health, we have the global view of how healthcare systems are evolving in the wake of COVID-19 – and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is about to prove what's possible," says McCrae.

Orion Health's appointment builds on the company's reputation as the world leader in population health technology, operating across 15 countries including 12 US states, seven Canadian provinces and 56 percent of UK NHS regions.