Dr. Abdulelah Alhawsawi is an accomplished and resourceful patient safety leader with
many years of experience in healthcare systems. He is the CEO and Co-Founder of NOVO
Genomics and the founding Director-General of the Saudi Patient Safety Center (SPSC) and
MOH Advisor on Patient Safety (2016–October 2020). He was instrumental in establishing
SPSC as a WHO Collaborating Center for Patient Safety Policies and Strategies (one of only
five WHOCCs in the world in this field). He holds dual certification (American-Canadian) in
general surgery with sub-specialties in transplant and hepatobiliary surgery.
He is a consultant to several national and international quality and safety organizations and
recently became a board member and vice president of the Global Sepsis Alliance (GSA). He
was part of the Expert Panel on the 3rd Global Patient Safety Challenge of the WHO. He
chaired the organizing committee for the 4th Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety in
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2019. Dr. Alhawsawi was instrumental in making patient safety a
G20 priority for the first time in Saudi Arabia’s 2020 G20.
Currently, Dr. Alhawsawi is part of the Joint Commission Resources & WHO’s Global Patient
Safety Action Plan.
Taskforce and the World Patient Safety Day (WPSD) Steering Committee