SAUDI Aramco, a fully integrated global energy and chemicals enterprise, and Johns Hopkins Medicine, a leading US academic health system with extensive experience in elevating care delivery worldwide, has inaugurated a first-of-its-kind healthcare joint venture in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

The new company, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare Company, began operations on February 1, 2014. Saudi Aramco and Johns Hopkins Medicine each have an indirect ownership interest in the Saudi-registered company.

The healthcare joint venture will bring together Saudi Aramco’s long established healthcare delivery system and its approximately 350,000 beneficiaries and the world-renowned clinical, education and research expertise of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare will deliver high-quality healthcare to Saudi Aramco’s employees and their families. The partnership will enable growth and diversify and strengthen the provision of medical services in the kingdom.

“This partnership will result in a comprehensive transformation to further enhance our healthcare standards, and marks the beginning of a new level of care with new lines of treatment, new and enhanced specialties and subspecialties. It will also enable new forays into research and medical education as well as create opportunities for education and training of medical staff,” says Abdulaziz Al Khayyal, senior vice president of Industrial Relations at Saudi Aramco.

Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare is expected to fuel clinical innovation, serve as a model in the provision of healthcare and contribute to the development of the healthcare industry in alignment with Saudi Aramco’s commitment to enabling growth, opportunities and diversification within the kingdom’s economy.

For more than 80 years, Saudi Aramco has established a strong, comprehensive healthcare system that delivers on the company’s commitment to provide quality healthcare to its employees and healthcare beneficiaries. The company has been instrumental in building one of the first hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

On a broader time scale, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare will seek to improve population health through scientific innovation, clinical care, and training of clinicians, nurses and healthcare professionals – the very principles that have defined Johns Hopkins Medicine throughout its 124-year history.

“Together, we will be greater than the sum of our parts, because this joint venture combines Saudi Aramco’s existing health system with the transformative science, clinical care and education that Johns Hopkins is known for,” says Paul B Rothman, MD, dean of the medical faculty and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine. “Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare will become an incubator for clinical and scientific progress and will address some of the region’s most pressing health challenges, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other chronic conditions, which are on the rise worldwide.”

“It is a privilege for us to collaborate with Saudi Aramco to carry forth its commitment to improving the health of its employees,” says Steven J Thompson, CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine International. “Doing so will be mile one on a long journey to enhance the well-being of the entire community, and represents a next-generation approach to global collaborative healthcare.”