The Saudi Vision 2030 Health Sector Transformation Program (HSTP) 2025 Annual Report marks an important milestone in the country’s healthcare journey. More than a progress update, it signals how far the Kingdom's transformation has progressed, from ambition to implementation. As healthcare infrastructure, digital services and new models of care continue to mature, the next challenge will increasingly be to ensure people understand, embrace and sustain the changes being built around them.
The report captures a health system that is becoming increasingly broad, well-connected, digital and prevention-orientated. Life expectancy in Saudi has reached 79.7 years – moving closer to the Vision 2030 target of 80 – while coverage of population settlements by primary healthcare services now stands at 97.5%.
The scale of digital transformation is equally striking. More than 31 million beneficiaries now use Sehhaty, the national digital health platform, while more than 365,000 people have been reached through Seha Virtual Hospital – connected to 241 hospitals. Alongside this, the report highlights a growing emphasis on prevention, healthy cities, public health preparedness, patient safety and the Health in All Policies approach.
These are all important indicators of progress. But they also raise an important strategic question for health leaders: once infrastructure, access and digital platforms are in place, what determines whether people actually use them, and change their behaviour because of them?
The answer is Trust.
In health transformation, trust is often discussed as a communications outcome – something built through reputation, visibility or positive messaging. In reality, however, trust is also a condition for execution. It influences whether people are willing to seek care earlier, share their data, follow prevention guidance, use digital tools, adopt new models of care, and ultimately believe that the system around them is acting in their best interests.
This is particularly important because people do not make health decisions in a vacuum. They are making deeply personal decisions about their bodies, their families, their privacy and their future wellbeing. A new platform may create convenience, but people still need confidence in how their data is collected, used and protected. A prevention campaign may raise awareness, but only if people believe the advice it gives is relevant to their lives. Likewise, a new model of care may improve efficiency, but patients and clinicians alike need to understand how it will shape their experience.
The next phase of Saudi Arabia's health transformation will therefore be defined not only by what is being built or added, but by whether those transformations are understood, trusted and ultimately adopted.
Digital health relies on more than technology
Saudi Arabia's digital health scale is one of the strongest signals in the HSTP 2025 report. Sehhaty, Seha Virtual Hospital, unified health records, e-prescriptions, digital licensing platforms and data-enabled services are helping create a more connected health system.
As digital health becomes an increasingly integral part of the care experience, the communications challenge shifts from promoting access to building confidence. People do not only ask, "Can I access the service?" They also ask, "Can I trust it?"
That trust extends to data privacy, clinical oversight, continuity of care, human support, and the point at which digital interactions become medical decisions. Building trust means making the invisible visible: showing how data is protected, how clinical quality is maintained, when human care is involved, and how the platform connects to the wider health system.
The opportunity for health organisations is to move beyond functional messaging about speed and convenience. Instead, digital health communications should build confidence in the overall experience, helping people understand not only what the technology enables, but also how it supports their care.
Prevention begins with behavioural change
The HSTP 2025 report shows a clear shift upstream. Health is no longer framed solely around treating illness but around enabling longer, healthier lives through prevention, early detection and healthier environments.
This shift is evident across the health system – from public health initiatives and screening programmes to healthier cities and a stronger focus on chronic disease prevention. More broadly, it reflects a growing recognition that health is shaped not just in clinics and hospitals, but in the places where people live, work and move through everyday life.
That shift changes the purpose of health communications: awareness alone is not enough, as it does not guarantee prevention. People may know what is good for them and still not act. They may understand a risk but not feel personally vulnerable. They may receive guidance but not trust the source. They may intend to act but face friction, social norms or a lack of support.
As such, prevention-led transformation requires more than raising awareness. It depends on engaging people through trusted voices, making messages relevant to their everyday lives, and giving them the confidence to act. The challenge is not simply deciding what people need to know, but understanding who they trust and what will motivate them to shift their behaviour.
For communicators, this means designing trust ecosystems, rather than isolated messages. Edelman’s 2026 Trust Barometer Special Report: Trust and Health has shown that people's health decisions are shaped by a wider ecosystem of influence, extending beyond doctors and public institutions to families, employers, community voices, digital platforms, creators and other non-traditional – sometimes non-credentialed – sources.
The private sector’s role: from participation to trusted contribution
The next phase of transformation also has implications across the health ecosystem – from pharmaceutical companies and providers to investors, employers and the wider health innovation sector.
As Saudi Arabia's health system becomes more integrated and outcomes-oriented, private sector organisations will need to communicate their role differently. Generic alignment with Vision 2030 will no longer be enough. Stakeholders will increasingly expect organisations to demonstrate how they contribute to better health outcomes – whether by expanding access, improving quality, driving innovation or strengthening the resilience of the health system.
This requires a shift from activity-based communication to contribution-based communication.
The strongest organisations will not simply say they are present in the Kingdom or supportive of transformation. They will demonstrate the value they bring across the ecosystem by supporting patients and clinicians, building capacity, closing critical gaps, and advancing innovation that delivers measurable outcomes.
In a trust-led adoption phase, visibility is not the same as credibility. The latter is built through relevance, evidence, partnership and consistency – and communications has a key role to play in earning it. It helps organisations define their role in the transformation, connect their business priorities to public value, engage stakeholders with clarity, and demonstrate contribution without sounding opportunistic.
Trust as the foundation for adoption
Saudi Arabia's health transformation has reached a stage where communications should no longer be treated as a layer around change. Instead, it should be designed as an integral part of how that change is understood, adopted and sustained.
While the HSTP 2025 report demonstrates the scale of progress already achieved, the next chapter will depend on the trust journey that bridges system achievement and lived experience.
That journey is shaped by a series of moments that determine whether transformation becomes part of people's everyday lives. It begins with understanding what is changing and why it matters, builds through trust and confidence, and ultimately relies on experiences that encourage people to engage, embrace new behaviours and maintain them.
For health leaders, the challenge is no longer simply delivering transformation, but creating the conditions that enable people to make it part of their everyday lives.
That is why trust is not a soft concept in health transformation: it is infrastructure.