17 May 2017: Healthcare Asia Forum 2017 was held at the Impiana Hotel Kuala Lumpur and one of the topics of presentation and discussion was on Digitalisation in Healthcare. I was the speaker for this topic and the discussion enumerated the advantage of using technology in healthcare with total hospital information system.
We have a 20 plus year history of paperless hospitals in Malaysia and the very first one was in Selayang which is fully owned by the government. Many private centres today have similar systems and it has shown that the total healthcare delivery is far superior, effective and precise. The transformation into total IT system in hospitals may be difficult at the early stages but it is an effective way for the current and future generations.
Today the healthcare systems accommodates wearable devices and applications on mobile phones and this has made personal health care monitoring even more seamless. It is hoped that one day all hospitals in public and private will be able to communicate on one platform so that exchange of information can occur to render complete care to the patients who may resort to both public and private care at the same time but with all appropriate consents and protection of confidentiality.
The other sessions were on health care payments and the role of medical tourism contributing into national incomes for countries like Malaysia.
