Telemedicine and remote patient monitoring technologies are necessary, even in a small country like Singapore, to support an aging population and allow patients with chronic diseases to better manage their health.
By 2030, some 30 percent of Singapore's citizens will be part of the aging population, according to Singapore HealthPartners CIO James Woo, who noted that elderly folks are less mobile and face difficulties making regular trips to the polyclinics to receive health care. Telemedicine or remote patient monitoring systems will enable these patients to have tele-consultation with healthcare specialists, eliminating the need to make a trip to the clinic unless necessary, he said.
In an interview with ZDNet Asia, Woo said Singapore's Ministry of Health is taking a serious look into promoting discipline among patients, as part of efforts to encourage them to monitor and maintain their own health. Doing so means they are less likely to end up in a public healthcare institution where bedcrunch is a big issue in the country, he noted.
"How we do this is by getting these patients to take their own blood pressure, sugar readings and heart rate through remote patient monitoring," he said.
The CIO also pointed to the benefits of an electronic medical record (EMR) system which he said would improve patient safety, and provide healthcare providers access to a patient's complete medical history to help in their diganosis and establish the right treatment.
The system will also ensure the same medical records can flow seamlessly between the various healthcare providers, including primary care, acute care and stepdown care, Woo explained.
While the public healthcare sector would unlikely face any barriers, he noted that the private sector could face challenges adopting the EMR system because clinics would need to move their data to a digital platform, which would cost them time and money.
Singapore's health ministry would need to provide incentives for the private sector to overcome this, he said, adding that eventually, the private sector would recognize that the benefits outweigh the cost of getting on the EMR bandwagon.
About Singapore HealthPartners
Singapore HealthPartners is currently constructing a billion-dollar facility, Connexion at Farrer Park, which is touted to be one of the world's first truly integrated healthcare and hospitality facilities, encompassing a specialist medical center, private hospital and luxury hotel.
When completed in 2013, the site will include over 230 hotel rooms, 189 medical consultation suites and 11 operating theaters.
Enterprise e-mail clients may not appear to have changed much, but firms in Singapore are implementing innovations under the hood and integrating social and mobility to the business communications tool.
May 16, 2013 by Kevin Kwang
In a list dominated by tech firms, the telco comes in 12th overall for companies Singapore professionals most want to work for, according to a LinkedIn study. IBM was top choice, followed by Microsoft and Accenture.
May 6, 2013 by Ryan Huang
Evolving employee behavior and growing importance of digital marketing and commerce mean CIOs are losing some of their control in IT procurement and deployment to other C-level executives.
April 2, 2013 by Ryan Huang
Government eyes more productivity and less reliance on foreign labor with schemes to reward small and midsize businesses for innovation, and co-fund wage raises for local workers.
February 25, 2013 by Ryan Huang
Consumers and enterprises are already savvy, but supporting infrastructures need to catch up and offer functionalities retailers need to fully integrate location-based marketing into their business.
January 29, 2013 by Liau Yun Qing
ZDNet's panel discussion threw up several interesting talking points such as the importance of reviewing analytic tools, the need to convince employees to adopt such tools, and user privacy.
December 11, 2012 by Eileen Yu
Have Singapore businesses really been using big data technology for the past 10 years?
December 7, 2012 by Eileen Yu
Panelists at ZDNet Asia's Big Debate share how big data is helping Singapore, and what's holding back companies from fully tapping the potential of analytics.
November 30, 2012 by Ryan Huang
Knowing the intent and meaning behind the unstructured data that gets analyzed is the next evolution for big data, and will help companies avoid making spurious decisions.
November 28, 2012 by Jamie Yap
In the leadup to ZDNet Asia's Big Debate on Nov. 28, we put the spotlight on panelist Janet Ang, managing director of IBM Singapore.
November 26, 2012 by Eileen Yu
In the leadup to ZDNet Asia's Big Debate on Nov. 28, we put the spotlight on panelist Jude Yew, assistant professor at the Department of Communications and New Media from the National University of Singapore.
November 26, 2012 by Eileen Yu
In the leadup to ZDNet Asia's Big Debate on Nov. 28, we put the spotlight on panelist Tan Eng Pheng, senior director of industry cluster group, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.
November 26, 2012 by Eileen Yu
In the leadup to ZDNet Asia's Big Debate on Nov. 28, we put the spotlight on panelist James Woo, CIO of healthcare service provider, The Farrer Park Company.
November 26, 2012 by Eileen Yu
Service providers are now focusing on getting the fundamentals right, such as offering low latency and zero disconnections, but further innovation will require more developers and venture firms to come onboard.
November 5, 2012 by Ryan Huang
The government is still "actively working" with vendors to complete the S$1.3 billion project for a single operating environment for the public sector, although the education ministry has completed the migration.
September 24, 2012 by Kevin Kwang
Government calls for proposals from industry players to explore the feasibility of extending the country's free public Wi-Fi service, Wireless@SG, until 2017.
August 30, 2012 by Eileen Yu
Country is only one placed among two Top 10 projects--in water recycling and waste management--on KPMG's Infrastructure 100 global index.
July 5, 2012 by Clement Teo
Panasonic to invest S$10.2 million (US$8 million) over next two years to set up R&D center focusing on energy management solutions, while industry watchers point out technology alone not enough for smart city success.
July 4, 2012 by Ryan Huang
ZDNet tours showfloor of World Cities Summit in Singapore and spotlights three booths featuring social system to reduce carbon emission, city crisis management and green buildings.
July 4, 2012 by Clement Teo
In fact, the East has better opportunities than its Western counterpart to invest in sustainable infrastructures and build sustainable cities, says delegate at World Cities Summit.
July 4, 2012 by Clement Teo
Delegates at this week's World Cities Summit highlight age, art, shared responsibility and temporality are key traits in an "intense" city, but for Singapore, it's about deliberate design.
July 4, 2012 by Clement Teo
National Environment Agency partners IBM to develop analytics solutions to address environmental concerns, while other agencies considering providing access to data sets to address urban sustainability challenges.
July 3, 2012 by Ryan Huang
Philosophical and social issues just as important in city urbanization, say delegates at World Cities Summit in Singapore, who point to "blueprint" method of urban planning.
July 3, 2012 by Clement Teo
Cities planned well tend to attract investments and global talent, and become a focal point for opportunities but good governance on areas such as housing and access to water and sanitation crucial, politicians note.
July 2, 2012 by Clement Teo
Big Apple's efforts in creating sustainable urban landscape for its residents receive recognition in form of Lee Kwan Yew World City Prize 2012.
July 2, 2012 by Clement Teo
Ahead of World Cities Summit, Singapore company introduces suite of IT solutions for cities to address growing urbanization, sustainability and environmental challenges.
July 2, 2012 by Ryan Huang
ZDNet Asia visits Singapore's newly-opened Gardens by the Bay to uncover the technology powering three areas: cooling conservatories, Supertrees and Dragonfly Lake.
June 29, 2012 by Ellyne Phneah
Marsiling Secondary School sees green actions and values, rather than just infrastructure, as necessary in spreading and sustaining energy efficiency motto.
May 17, 2012 by Jamie Yap
Country sees traction in companies adopting common mobile services "enablers" co-developed as part of government-led IT roadmap, Intelligent Nation 2015, and plans for further rollouts, says ICT regulator.
April 25, 2012 by Ryan Huang
For first time, country will hold three global events together--World Cities Summit, Singapore International Water Week and inaugural CleanEnviro Summit--to provide wider and integrated platform for exchange of ideas to tackle increasingly complex problems.
April 20, 2012 by Ryan Huang
Country's iN2015 blueprint producing more skilled IT workers to meet market demands and spurring IT adoption across industries such as healthcare, as well as small and midsize businesses.
February 13, 2012 by Kevin Kwang
ZDNet Asia survey reveals 18.8 percent of Singapore companies perceive ICT impact in organization as "innovating", among which 22.5 percent are companies with over 1,000 employees, compared to 18 percent of those with fewer than 100 employees.
February 7, 2012 by Eileen Yu
ZDNet Asia talks to ICT regulator, market players to discuss what Singapore needs to do to drive adoption of national broadband network and resolve enterprise deployment issues.
February 7, 2012 by Kevin Kwang
CEO Neil Montefiore eyes bigger footprint against "ex-incumbent" in enterprise market and confident of achieving this goal with Vodafone global partnership.
November 17, 2011 by Eileen Yu
OCBC says pervasive use of Web-connected mobile devices and social networks has compelled banks to tweak their service models in order to meet customer demand for "instant, now".
November 15, 2011 by Eileen Yu
Singapore's Land Transport Authority looking at global positioning system to improve country's Electronic Road Pricing infrastructure and planning to introduce new portal to push mobile apps to commuters.
November 14, 2011 by Eileen Yu
Resorts World Sentosa bets on big data analytics to gain customer insights and provide better service, but CTO Yap Chee Yuen says lack of good IT skills and limited vendor knowledge in unique gaming sector a big challenge.
November 7, 2011 by Eileen Yu
We take stock of Singapore government's Intelligent Nation 2015 and find out how organizations in the island-state have adopted ICT to drive business growth and innovation.
October 31, 2011 by Eileen Yu
The first interview in ZDNet Asia's Intelligent Singapore video series, CTO Wilfred Kwan defines "intelligence" needed in data centers today and discusses growth opportunities cloud computing has created for the telecommunication services provider.
October 31, 2011 by Eileen Yu
Loading... Please wait.
Talkback