The Conference of Health Transformation in Saudi Arabia — Redefining Public and Community Health brings the Kingdom's public health community to Dammam for three accredited days hosted by the Eastern Health Cluster at the Sheraton Dammam Hotel, 10–12 October 2026. Chaired by Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Al Zahrani, Epidemiologist and Group Director of Public and Community Health at Eastern Health Cluster HQ, the meeting is built around a single conviction: health begins before illness, and prevention is a shared responsibility built through collective effort.
The programme is deliberately aligned with Saudi Vision 2030 and the wider transformation of the health system. Across eight scientific sessions the faculty examines the evolving role of public health in the Kingdom, the integration between public health, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and Population Health Management, sustainable financing and health economic approaches that keep preventive programmes viable, and current trends in communicable disease, vaccination coverage and emerging public health threats.
Day one (10 October) is a dedicated workshop day. After a lecture on the mechanism of vaccine action, delegates rotate through four practical workshops: Using Artificial Intelligence in Public Health Data Analysis, Immunization Cold Chain, an Outbreak Simulation Lab, and Strategies to Improve Immunization Coverage. Each workshop carries its own registration, and registering for one workshop grants optional access to the others at no extra cost.
Days two and three (11–12 October) carry the main scientific programme. Session one opens with the future of public health in Saudi Arabia and Vision 2030, featuring Dr. Abdullah Mufareh Assiri, Deputy Minister for Population Health. Session two turns to sustainable financing and health economics, including preventive health financing across the GCC, cost-effectiveness and return-on-investment models, and economic evaluation of preventive programmes. Sessions three and four cover vaccination and communicable disease trends — RSV protection in early infancy, herpes zoster updates, vaccines in pregnancy, antimicrobial resistance, epidemiological surveillance integrated with primary care and school health, hepatitis C and HIV. Day three moves to population health, prevention and lifestyle interventions, with international input from Dr. Charles Chima of the University of Mississippi Medical Center on building population health management infrastructure in emerging ACOs, followed by community and workplace wellbeing, preparedness and public health security, and a closing session on innovation, technology and media in public health covering digital health, AI-driven infection surveillance and the evaluation of social media-based health promotion.
The conference is accredited for 17 CME hours (accreditation number ACA-20260002580) and is open to all medical fields. Fees are 200 SAR for Eastern Health Cluster physicians and 100 SAR for EHC non-physicians; 300 SAR for non-EHC physicians and 150 SAR for non-EHC non-physicians, with the same fee structure applying to conference and workshops under separate registration. The event is powered by AFAQ Health Education, with GSK as Gold Sponsor and Sanofi as Bronze Sponsor.
