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Self-health management at the population level is only possible if the entire health ecosystem mobilizes the resources and energy, says Benedict Tan, who will be speaking at this year’s HIMSS22 Asia-Pacific conference in Bali.
Tan is Group Chief Digital Strategy Officer and Chief Data Officer at SingHealth, Singapore’s largest public healthcare conglomerate.
He thinks that digital technologies will allow each patient to control their own health.
This, he said, is adding to the fact that digital and non-digital technologies are brought together in the current era of Healthcare 4.0.
“As we have seen how quickly and effectively the healthcare industry has adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic, I am hopeful that we will need to focus our efforts and resources to achieve this.
Love for health IT
After landing his first job at Singapore’s National Computer Board, Tan was assigned to a post in the Ministry of Health (MOH).
Tan is passionate about everything health IT, from ensuring his colleagues’ diaries and IT networks are running smoothly, to implementing artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that enable fast and accurate patient diagnosis.
“Some may not see the value behind the seemingly mundane and simple IT tasks, but to me they are just as important as providing healthcare professionals with the right IT tools and solutions to help them treat patients and save lives,” he said.
Throughout his career, Tan has been involved in some key health IT projects, including the review and streamlining of the civil service benefits system and the implementation of an RFID-based bed management system for Singapore General Hospital.
“Both agencies and departments involved collaborating with a number of key stakeholders to thoroughly evaluate and understand processes to simplify and streamline digital technologies. Ultimately, the focus for both projects was on improving the lives of customers. That is, government workers who submit claims and patients who need a hospital bed for recovery.”
He recalls interacting with a young doctor who chose to specialize in medical informatics. “When asked why he chose to work in IT instead of treating patients, he said, “If I practice as a doctor, I can treat thousands of patients in my life. But if I implement successful IT solutions, I can save. Millions of lives. His answer inspired me and has kept me alive ever since.
Address increasing IT costs
A public healthcare cluster like SingHealth is constantly exploring and implementing new digital technologies to transform its services for better patient care and experience, says Tan.
Currently, SingHealth is working on AI/machine learning projects that read digital images to support the clinical diagnosis of other health conditions and is tracking the success of deploying the AI ​​system SELENA+ for major eye diseases. It is also exploring the use of AI technologies to predict workload and optimize resources and improve patient experience and clinical outcomes.
Additionally, the healthcare team is collaborating with the MOH and other public healthcare clusters to leverage digital tools that support public health.
However, a concern facing healthcare agencies, more so than organizations in other industries, is the increasing cost of implementing new technologies. Tan and his team really care about this.
“While digital technologies bring many benefits to patient experience and care outcomes, public health agencies must control the costs of introducing digital technologies to make healthcare affordable and accessible to patients,” Tan points out.
Tan will be speaking at the keynote address at the HIMSS22 APAC conference, Care is not what it used to be: The importance of elevating the consumer experience. The conference will be held in Bali, Indonesia from September 26 to 29. To know more over here.
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