Riyadh: The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) announced the launch of 'SALEM' at the fourth Riyadh Global Medical Biotechnology Summit, introducing an open-source platform to verify interactions between medications, foods, and herbs, enhance medication safety, raise awareness among patients and healthcare practitioners, and support national healthcare standards.
According to Saudi Press Agency, 'SALEM' is one of KACST's contributions to the development of unified national references, enabling users to identify potential interactions through a reliable and up-to-date database linked to medications registered in the Saudi market, thereby ensuring the accuracy of the information and its relevance to local users.
General Manager of KACST's Digital Health Institute Dr. Sultan Alzahrani said that 'SALEM' represents a significant leap forward in the development of the medication safety system by employing advanced technologies and artificial intelligence to support decision-making and improve healthcare outcomes.
'SALEM' provides an intelligent system to monitor and classify drug, food, and herb interactions based on their severity. It also offers simplified guidance to support the safe use of medications and minimize potential side effects, while delivering real-time alerts for critical interactions and providing integration capabilities with digital health systems.
The tool's database includes 9,234 medications registered with the Saudi Food and Drug Authority, 35 food items, as well as 873 potential drug, food, and herb interactions, thereby facilitating safer and more informed treatment decisions.
As part of supporting the principle of reuse and cooperation in developing national digital solutions, KACST has deposited the tool's source code on the government software platform of the Digital Government Authority, enabling government, healthcare, and research entities to benefit from and further develop it in accordance with approved controls. The source code can be accessed through the following link: