This study is a part of the final research project by Samar Nassar to earn the Master of Science (MSc) degree in Healthcare & Design at the Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London; a joint program with the Royal College of Arts.

As the Managing Director for Healthcare Provision and Technologies at Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Investment, she supervises healthcare-related investments, as well as serves on the board of Vision 2030’s Health Sector Transformation Program. Prior to this, she was the Executive Director of Healthcare at KPMG Saudi Arabia.

Samar has more than 20 years of healthcare industry experience, in both the public and private sectors, with an emphasis on large-scale transformations in the Middle East and emerging economies. She is particularly intrigued by the rapid changes brought about by the digital revolution in healthcare.

Prior to her management consulting experience, she guided Arterys, a health tech startup based in Silicon Valley, in expanding to the Middle East market, pioneering the introduction of AI-based diagnostic imaging in the region. Earlier, as Marketing Director at the National Center for Privatization and PPP, a Vision 2030 program, she oversaw 12 sectors and was a member of the founding board of the healthcare PPPs committee. Her career path also includes tenures at esteemed corporations like GE and Johnson & Johnson.

Hutan Ashrafian BSc(Hons.), MBBS, PhD, MBA is a clinician-scientist and active surgeon translating novel technologies and therapeutics in healthcare and policy. He is currently Lead for Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London and Chief Scientific Officer of Preemptive Health at the largest global venture incubator – Flagship Pioneering, which generated Moderna.

He has over 20 years of translational clinical, computational physiology, robotic surgery, digital and AI trial and product development experience including novel plant biological COVID vaccines, online teaching tools and national tracing apps. He leads the STARD-AI and QUADAS-AI global guideline initiatives for AI diagnostic accuracy. He runs the collaboration with Imperial College London, NHS Hospitals and Google on an AI algorithm for Breast Screening and also with NICE on health technological assessment classifications for AI. He was awarded the Royal College of Surgeons Arris and Gale Lectureship, the Hunterian Prize, Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship and an NIHR Clinical Lectureship. He has authored >550 publications (including Lancet, Nature, NEJM) and 12 personally authored books ranging from medicine, philosophy and ancient history. He has several eponymous medical signs named after him including the Ashrafian sign for aortic regurgitation and described his own procedure – the Ashrafian Thoracotomy.

His philosophical work is in artificial general intelligence, The Turing Test, human rights and solving the simulation argument is taught at law schools and he is regularly featured in historical and scientific documentaries. He has also discovered a time paradox in general relativity and closed timelike curves (CTC). He holds the role of visiting Professor of Research Impact at Leeds University Business School. He has co-edited the major reference text of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine by Springer Nature. His h-index is 63 and based on citation is ranked in the top 1% of scientists worldwide.