Saudi Arabia is undergoing one of the most ambitious health transformations of the 21st century — a national effort to redesign how care is delivered, accessed, measured, and improved. Under Vision 2030, the Model of Care is at the center of this shift, now moving from strategy into implementation through a flagship partnership between Mass General Brigham and the Health Holding Company. This collaboration blends global clinical and operational expertise with local leadership to build a unified, accountable, and future-ready health ecosystem.

During a recent interview, Dr. Luis Lobón, MD – VP Advisory, Mass General Brigham International, explains how the partnership is already reshaping care delivery and what it signals for the future of global health collaboration.

1.What is the shared vision that guides the Health Holding Co. and Mass General Brigham partnership
“Mass General Brigham, an integrated academic health system based in Boston, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with two centuries of leadership in patient care, research, and education, brings a depth of experience in translating medical innovation into system-level improvement. Our collaboration with Health Holding Company represents how that legacy can empower national transformation.

The shared vision between Mass General Brigham and Health Holding Co. is one integrated healthcare system based on the accountable care organization (ACO) model that provides high quality and innovative care to the population in Saudi and Boston. We align on three outcomes: access that feels simple and universal, consistent quality of care delivery, and organizational accountability. These principles are rooted in the model that has guided our own system transformation in Massachusetts, integrating academic medicine, community hospitals, and population health to deliver coordinated, value-based care.

Together, this partnership turns shared vision and principles into practice. Mass General Brigham applies its experience in designing integrated systems by brining best practices and training models that strengthen care delivery, Health Holding Co. brings in the opportunity and leadership to provide uniform and high quality of care to the people of Saudi Arabia working in close collaboration and supporting the ACOs at the Cluster levels. The patient is placed in the middle of the healthcare journey and services are provided seamlessly and uniformly across the nation.”

2.How has the partnership between Health Holding Co. and Mass General Brigham translated from planning to real-world impact so far?
“The collaboration has already proven what’s possible when vision through strategy implementation meets execution. In AlUla, Mass General Brigham and Health Holding Co. worked side by side to strengthen emergency care services — from clinical operations to workforce training and governance. About 24 Mass General Brigham subject-matter experts, including 22 physicians and 2 nursing leaders, worked alongside HHC teams to optimize operations, train local clinicians, and strengthen clinical governance.

Under this joint effort, the emergency department at Prince Abdul Mohsen Hospital achieved its first national accreditation and became a model for patient flow and safety. What makes this milestone meaningful is not just the outcome, but the method: Saudi and American teams co-designed every step, combining global best practice with local insight creating a responsible sustainable model of acute care delivery. That collaboration and its scalability is the blueprint we’re now expanding nationwide through the Model of Care.”

3.As a global leader, how does your partnership support a Saudi led transformation?
“Together, we are designing WITH, not FOR. Best practice travels, but credibility is local. Our approach is to co design pathways with Health Holding Co. leaders, adapt evidence based methods to Saudi priorities, and then build ownership in the clusters that will run them. This is how you turn international expertise into local advantage – and develop a model that can be adapted globally."

4.What does meaningful knowledge transfer look like in this partnership?
“At Mass General Brigham, we see capability-building as one of the most powerful forms of partnership. It’s about nurturing leadership that can run complex services, empowering teams that learn by doing, and embedding standards that are understood the same way from boardroom to bedside. Our focus is three levers: leadership and workforce development, governance and disciplined performance review. By equipping local leaders with the tools to manage complex systems independently, we are working together to strengthen quality improvement and create lasting impact across the health system.”

5.What defines success by 2030 from your perspective?
“Success is when we’ve created a system that learns, monitors and redirects based on outcomes, and innovates - primary care that prevents more disease, emergency care that moves faster with confidence, maternal and child health that sets families up for life. Mass General Brigham contributes a culture of inquiry and integration built over two centuries. Health Holding Co. anchors national scale and continuity. Together, we can lift quality across clusters and add healthy years for people across the Kingdom.”

6.How does innovation fit into the partnership’s vision for Saudi Arabia’s health transformation?
“Innovation, for us, means rethinking how systems learn and adapt. It’s not about technology for technology’s sake, but about creating the conditions for smarter care decisions every day. Mass General Brigham’s experience with groundbreaking research and digital integration complements Health Holding Co.’s ambition to build a more agile, accountable health ecosystem. Together, we’re designing a model where every insight can translate into action at scale. This reflects the same principles that drive innovation across our own hospitals every day. For example, by bringing together data, clinical insight, and discovery to continuously improve patient outcomes at scale.”

7.What does this collaboration signal about the future of global health partnerships
“The future is co-creation. The partnership between Mass Genn Bringham and Health Holding Co. is a living example of how health systems can evolve through partnership rather than prescription. It shows what’s possible when a country has the vision and will to redesign healthcare from the ground up, and when that vision is supported by global expertise that knows how to turn strategy into desirable outcomes.

What’s emerging in Saudi Arabia is a model that others can study, adapt, and ultimately export to the world - a blueprint for integrating prevention, accountability, and quality at national scale. In time, the Saudi Model of Care can stand alongside the world’s most influential health frameworks, guiding nations that want to move from reactive to proactive care. And our collaboration demonstrates how to get there.

For Mass General Brigham, this collaboration reflects our mission to share what we have learned as an integrated academic health system and to contribute to global efforts that make care more proactive, equitable, and connected.