CLOUD-BASED HEALTHCARE INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SECURE AND SCALABLE DIGITAL HEALTH TRANSFORMATION IN SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

Saudi Arabias digital health transformation increasingly depends on infrastructure that can integrate heterogeneous clinical data, support virtual care, scale analytics, and maintain security across distributed providers. This review critically examines cloud-based healthcare information infrastructure as an enabling layer for that transformation. A structured integrative review approach was used to synthesize recent peer reviewed evidence on cloud adoption,interoperability, cybersecurity, Internet of Medical Things, electronic health records, telehealth, and Saudi digital-health implementation. The literature indicates that cloud platforms can improve elasticity, shared-service efficiency, remote access, disaster recovery, and the ability to combine clinical, administrative, and device-generated data. Yet the same architectural centrality increases exposure to confidentiality breaches, insecure interfaces, identity compromise, ransomware, vendor dependence, service interruption, and inconsistent data semantics. Saudi-specific studies further show that technical potential is mediated by organizational readiness, workforce capability, interoperability maturity, trust, governance, and compliance.