Bandar Almifgai

Head of Digital Health

Bandar Almifgai heads digital health at the Saudi Food and Drug Authority, the regulator that authorises medical devices in the kingdom. He holds a 2019 PhD in industrial engineering from the University of Miami, supervised by Joseph Sharit and Shihab Asfour, with a dissertation on the acceptability and usability of a simulated patient portal for Saudi Arabian adults. The associated study, published in the International Journal of Healthcare in 2020, put 203 Saudi participants of mean age 40.9 through seven health tasks, and found electronic health literacy and health numeracy to be significant predictors of performance on the harder tasks, while exposure to the system raised acceptance of using the internet to manage health. His regulatory remit covers software that qualifies as a medical device, devices built on artificial intelligence, telemedicine platforms, digital therapeutics and mobile health applications, as distinct from wellness products. The authority laid out that risk-based framework in its guidance on digital health products, MDS-G027, published in August 2025, and explains it to manufacturers in public workshops.