Building sustainable digital systems to deliver future-proof care

Singapore – 2020 has been a year like no other, with the global pandemic placing unprecedented strain on frontline workers, and senior leaders having to make decisions under the most difficult circumstances. As healthcare leaders draw on the lessons learnt and the accelerating revolutionization of healthcare innovation, it’s vital to also explore how healthcare systems can build sustainable digital systems to deliver future-proof care.

Caroline Clarke, Market Leader and EVP, Philips ASEAN Pacific, together with Dr Benedictus Widaja, President Director, Mandaya Hospital Group, expanded on this further at a recent keynote session at Hospital Management Asia (HMA) 2021, which was moderated by Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh, President, Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia.

Dr Benedictus highlighted the importance of collaborative partnerships with vendors such as Philips to ensure integration for seamless workflows and a smooth patient journey. He said, “The patient journey has various digital aspects at Mandaya Hospital, from access to electronic health records at emergency rooms to diagnosis in MRI and radiology, to inpatient and outpatient monitoring tools. All these technologies not only work together to provide patients and their families the best experiences possible, but also allow clinicians to provide informed and efficient care to their patients.”

Investing in people and training for greater digital health adoption

For effective and sustainable adoption, the end-users – the hospital staff – need to be nurtured and trained with these digital health technologies, which can then be used to their full potential. Around half of APAC’s healthcare leaders mention staff’s lack of experience with new technologies among the top internal barriers to future planning, whilst one in four say that staff shortages are holding them back. Despite this, surprisingly only 15% of APAC’s healthcare leaders say that addressing staff shortages is currently a top priority.

However, for forward-looking hospitals such as Mandaya, Dr Benedictus stressed, “Ensuring staff are adequately trained in new technologies is crucial to maximizing the full potential of integrated clinical systems. Widespread digital health adoption requires digital literacy and buy-in from all management levels and investment in people and training is critical, especially in the face of the pandemic which has compounded issues of staff shortage and gaps in training. Just as we invest heavily in new technologies, we also have to invest in training hospital staff to use them to their full potential.”

Caroline highlighted, “While APAC’s healthcare leaders are already investing in predictive technologies like AI and machine learning to accelerate and transform care, there is a greater need to train staff to utilize them beyond administrative functions like patient scheduling, to more patient-outcome focused areas such as integrating diagnostics or for clinical decision support. To support its customers’ commitment to providing the best possible care, Philips provides comprehensive training, to teach staff how to best use products, help educate them in clinical specialties, and provide non-clinical professional development. All of Philips’ courses are designed to help enhance operational efficiency and quality of care."