Embracing change with HealthTech
- Digital healthcare tools have been prevalent in the healthcare industry for many years, but “the pace of its evolution and growth significantly ramped up as a result of the pandemic,” says Rana Karadsheh-Haddad
- The healthcare industry will need support from governments and the general public in order to adopt new technology and make changes to the system
Digital healthcare tools have been prevalent in the healthcare industry for many years, but “the pace of its evolution and growth significantly ramped up as a result of the pandemic,” says Rana Karadsheh-Haddad, Regional Industry Director in Manufacturing, Agribusiness & Services of South Asia & East Asia and Pacific at International Finance Corporation (IFC).
SCMP’s Asia Sustainability Conference introduces a panel, moderated by Elizabeth Cheung, a Senior Reporter at the Post, to give insight into the issues being faced in the healthcare system and how digital technologies will change the healthcare of the future.
Matthew Guilford, Co-founder and CEO of Common Health, states how in comparison to pre-pandemic times, “we are seeing providers much more interested in and open to adopting digital technology than they were before... and consumers have [also] really adopted digital technology in accessing health.” Not only are clinicians and patients using more digital health technology out of necessity such as making virtual doctor appointments, but the pandemic also made it clear how the healthcare system has many weak points needing to be addressed.
For example, Karadsheh-Haddad shares the following statistic: For every 1,000 people, there are 2.3 doctors in Singapore, 0.4 in Indonesia, 1.2 in the Philippines, and 0.8 in Vietnam. Similar ratios exist for the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people in these countries. Clearly, overall access to healthcare needs to be improved in Asia, and technology will likely be a large part of the solution.
The Path to Implementing Digital Health Technology
The healthcare industry will need support from governments and the general public in order to adopt new technology and make changes to the system. “It is not something that can happen overnight because of infrastructure issues and because of policy reform issues,” Karadsheh-Haddad says, but change is possible.
According to Karadsheh-Haddad, some of the most important factors going forward in the digital health space will be data privacy, interoperability of new and existing systems, and the automation of processes. “We also need to be much more rigorous and disciplined about how we understand and measure the impact of these new and emerging services,” Guilford adds.
The end goal is to create a satisfactory regulatory environment, make healthcare accessible and efficient, and ensure both patients and clinicians are comfortable and safe.
Interested to view or listen to this session? Access to our playback videos of the conference are available for ticket holders (LEARN, ELEVATE), visit here for more information.