Source:
https://scmp.com/events/business/topics/sustainable-asia/article/3148788/embracing-change-healthtech
Business

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
Photo by: Unsplash

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.

(Top left to bottom) Rana Karadsheh-Haddad, Regional Industry Director in Manufacturing, Agribusiness & Services of South Asia & East Asia and Pacific at International Finance Corporation (IFC), Matthew Guilford, Co-founder and CEO of Common Health, and [Moderator] Elizabeth Cheung, a Senior Reporter gives insight on the challenges being faced in the healthcare system and how digital technologies will change the future.
(Top left to bottom) Rana Karadsheh-Haddad, Regional Industry Director in Manufacturing, Agribusiness & Services of South Asia & East Asia and Pacific at International Finance Corporation (IFC), Matthew Guilford, Co-founder and CEO of Common Health, and [Moderator] Elizabeth Cheung, a Senior Reporter gives insight on the challenges being faced in the healthcare system and how digital technologies will change the future.
How Covid-19 Promoted Innovation
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. 

Rana Karadsheh-Haddad, Regional Industry Director in Manufacturing, Agribusiness & Services of South Asia & East Asia and Pacific at International Finance Corporation (IFC) mentions how data privacy will be the top priority going forward in the digital health space.
Rana Karadsheh-Haddad, Regional Industry Director in Manufacturing, Agribusiness & Services of South Asia & East Asia and Pacific at International Finance Corporation (IFC) mentions how data privacy will be the top priority going forward in the digital health space.
Guilford suggests all involved parties need to “start to look at how the private sector can fit into and support that integration with the public sector so we have a seamless experience for patients.” The private sector must be heavily involved in technology development and implementation, because the fiscal space of the government can only stretch so far, especially during a global pandemic. 

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.