RIYADH: A number of Saudi graduates of British universities were honored for success in their careers at an awards ceremony at the UK Embassy in Riyadh on Monday.

Now in its 11th year, the UK Study Alumni Award judged applicants in four categories: science and sustainability, culture and creativity, social action, and business and innovation.

Out of thousands of applicants, four winners were chosen for each category by a team of independent judges.

The Social Action Award was presented to Qamar Naith, assistant professor at the University of Jeddah, who created pioneering medical devices after overcoming her own battle with heart disease.

While studying at the University of Sheffield, Naith created three medical devices: the first for the early detection of strokes, the second for tracking post-operational changes, and the third for early detection of issues during pregnancy.

“UK universities have played a vital role in shaping my journey,” she said.

“The UK system in general, they motivate people to involve their real life in their education.”

Faisal Al-Zahrani, professor at King Abdulaziz University, received the Culture and Creativity Award for his work at MirZyme Theraputics, a biopharmaceutical company aimed at predicting and preventing complications during pregnancy.

Al-Zahrani spoke about how his grandfather had traveled around the south of Saudi Arabia 100 years ago, seeking knowledge before returning home to share his experiences.

“My dad inherited the love of education in his DNA and guided me for a decade until I became a full professor.”

MirZyme Theraputics brings together Saudi and British universities to carry out medical research.

Although unable to attend in person, Shoura Council member Amal Talat M. Qattan, scientist in the Department of Molecular Oncology at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, won the Science and Sustainability Award for her research on precision medicine with a proactive approach.

Finally, the Business and Innovation Award was given to Raed Abu Dawood, who is the CEO of Saudi Aramco Technologies Co.

UK Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Neil Crompton told Arab News that what distinguishes the winners and finalists is that they have done amazing work on top of the rigor of academic stress.

He said that study abroad “makes friendships that last for a lifetime.”

Alicia Herbert, the UK’s special envoy for gender equality, spoke to Arab News about the importance of studying abroad in forming a strong bedrock for UK-Saudi relations.

“It’s about fundamentally understanding each other, there is nothing more powerful than visiting another country for a particular period of time and getting under the skin of it to understand what it’s about, and I think that’s exactly what exchanges like these do.”

This year, eight out of the 12 finalists for the awards were women.

Herbert said that although she had only been in the country for a few hours, she was struck by the progress of gender equality here in the Kingdom and by the speed at which it has happened.

“The statistics are … staggering,” she said.

Herbert added the progress is “incredible” but there is more to do in both countries and beyond to keep driving change forward.

Herbert herself grew up in the Caribbean and came to the UK as a student where she earned postgraduate degrees from the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics, and 35 years later she is still in the UK.

Matthew Knowles, the British Council’s director for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the Gulf spoke to Arab News about the rich academic and economic connections between Saudi Arabia and the UK.

He noted that there are around 17,000 Saudi students studying in the UK every year, split equally between men and women.

“A night like this is celebrating lots of different things, it is celebrating the connection that people have walked away with from their times studying and living in the UK; one of those slightly unquantifiable things,” Knowles said.

“The friends you make, the memories you create. The way that you learn to think, the different ideas you come across, it is an incredibly immersive and rich experience, a life shaping experience.”

Knowles cited the International Institute for Clean Hydrogen, a joint project by Newcastle University and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and their respective partners, announced in December 2024, as an example of the seeds that are planted through the student and academic exchange between countries.

RIYADH: The UK’s National Health Service has been more of a “national sickness service” focusing more on treating disease instead of maintaining overall health and preventing illness, the head of a leading research program said during a Riyadh conference on Tuesday.

Raghib Ali, CEO of Our Future Health UK — the country’s largest health research project — made the remarks during a panel session at the second Global Healthspan Summit, of which Arab News is a media partner.

“The NHS has often functioned more as a national sickness service,” Ali said. “We need to pivot toward a model that prioritizes health maintenance rather than just treating diseases.”

Ali spoke about how his career began 25 years ago as a junior doctor in an emergency department.

He recognized a critical flaw in the health care system; too many patients were presenting with advanced diseases that had developed over decades.

“What we were doing as doctors was good, of course, we could treat our patients,” he said. “But too often, we were seeing patients with diseases that had developed over decades.

“If we could have found those people much earlier and intervened, we could have prevented or delayed those conditions significantly.”

Conditions such as heart attacks, strokes and cancers were often treated only after they became severe, highlighting the urgent need for earlier intervention.

The concept of healthspan — the period of life spent in good health — has gained traction as the traditional health care model has been criticized for overly focusing on disease management.

Despite advances in diagnostics and treatments, rising rates of multimorbidity, mental health issues and health inequalities are prevalent not only in the UK but across many parts of the world.

To combat this, Ali emphasized the importance of using new methodologies: “Innovative technologies — like polygenic risk scores and digital interventions — are vital in creating a more tailored approach to health,” he said.

Ali added: “Our goal is not just to extend life but to compress morbidity, ensuring that the period of ill health is as short as possible.”

While the adage “prevention is better than cure” has long been accepted, much of the research has focused on animal models rather than human populations.

To change this, Ali stressed the need for “a robust health research program that encompasses a diverse cohort of participants to understand how to improve healthspan effectively.”

Our Future Health UK was established to address gaps in research by creating a large, ethnically and socioeconomically diverse cohort that could provide valuable insights into healthspan interventions.

It aims to engage millions of individuals across various demographics, including younger populations, to understand the factors driving multimorbidity and how to effectively enhance healthy lifespans.

Ali highlighted the importance of making participation accessible and appealing to people from all walks of life.

“One of our key objectives is to decrease inequalities. We aim to make participation as straightforward as possible to engage individuals from all backgrounds,” he said.

Ali’s discussion emphasized that the future of healthspan medicine lay in effectively harnessing data.

By creating a comprehensive evidence base that includes insights from a wide range of participants, researchers hope to better understand which interventions are most effective and cost-efficient to develop large-scale public health strategies.