Mapping the digital health research landscape of the gulf cooperation council: A bibliometric synthesis of two decades of scholarship (2000–2024)

Digital health has become a strategic pillar of health system reform across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). However, the scholarly evidence base for this transformation remains fragmented and unevenly mapped. This study synthesizes two decades of bibliometric evidence (2000–2024) on digital health research originating in the six GCC states—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—and specifies a reproducible Scopus and Web of Science extraction protocol for primary science mapping. Drawing on the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) framework and established bibliometric guidelines, the analysis integrates macro-indicators of research productivity, thematic structure, and collaboration patterns reported in peer-reviewed regional studies. The evidence documents an accelerating publication trajectory, punctuated by a pronounced COVID-19 inflection and a marked concentration of output in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with Qatar exhibiting the region's steepest relative growth. Thematically, the field has migrated from foundational concerns with e-health infrastructure, electronic health records, and telemedicine toward Artificial Intelligence (AI), m-health, and personalized medicine. Collaboration is oriented predominantly toward extra-regional partners in the United Kingdom and the United States, whereas intra-GCC co-authorship remains comparatively weak. A persistent gap separates the region's world-leading translational deployments, exemplified by the Guinness-recognized Seha Virtual Hospital, from its comparatively modest knowledge production. This study offers a consolidated research agenda and a transparent methodological roadmap to advance rigorous, policy-relevant digital health scholarship in the Gulf.