Abstract

Background: Climate change has not spared the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in terms of their health effects around the world. There is a visible variation in weather, worsening air quality and soaring temperatures in the country. Strategic integration of environmental data with the current digital health systems would help in learning and managing such challenges effectively. This integration also helps in improving the health monitoring capability and the ability of the healthcare sector to respond faster and more effectively. Methods: To investigate this notion, we conducted a survey on 227 Saudis employed in several environmental and health-related sectors. The sample consisted of policymakers, academic researchers, environmental specialists and medical professionals. They were questioned about environmental data and digital health tools, their familiarity with them, and how they are currently used and whether they think the healthcare system is prepared to integrate on a deeper level. Results: Only a quarter of the respondents (25.6%) stated that they were currently using these integrated systems even though the majority (85%) had consented to the importance of the linking of the environmental data with the health data. The confidence in the readiness of the healthcare sector regarding this kind of change was low as only 17.2% of the respondents believed that the healthcare sector is prepared to undergo this kind of change. The findings revealed a difference in perception between various professions (X² (6) = 14.41, p = 0.025). There was also a considerable rise in the proportion of support to integration in those participants who were aware of digital systems or environmental health data (p < 0.01). Conclusions: The findings show that there is a high interest in introducing environmental data to digital health platforms regardless of concerns about technical capabilities and the overall readiness of the systems. Increasing the digital capabilities and interoperability would help to make the healthcare system more resilient to the constant changes in the environment.

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