(Nov 8): Policymakers have to ensure hospitals, whether government or private, follow a set of standards to ensure continuity of care for patients, said G Saravanan, the group chief information officer of TMC Life Sciences Bhd during the panel session entitled 'Digital health entrepreneurship: Navigating the landscape for start-ups and entrepreneurs' at the Malaysian Digital Expo 2023 Grand Finale on Wednesday.

This will ensure that hospitals have the past records of the patients that are admitted, which in turn will pave the way for better care, he said.

“These standards are not new, these standards are available. You can use any software, you can even use Excel. But the output of it has to be following a certain standard so that it’s submitted to the government, shared across all hospitals, across a platform so that we have continuity of care,” said Saravanan.

Saravanan recounted his experience in Indonesia 14 years ago of how he received pushback when he wanted to implement software in the hospital he was working in back then. However, he said things have changed as the Indonesian government announced that hospitals in the government or private sector have to implement electronic medical records (EMR).

“We need standardisation from other players as well on how records are stored. Records that are retrievable from hospitals will require a whole centralised system. The government will also need to push and ensure that this is actually realised,” added Kevin Nair, founder of Aoikumo.

To implement these sets of standards, willpower is key, asserted Dr Raymond Choy, co-founder and CEO of DOC2US.

“We need strong leadership to drive for the continuity of care and data and standardise the audience, you will need very strong willpower,” he said. Strong willpower was evident in the implementation of the MySejahtera app during the Covid-19 pandemic, further observed Choy.

“There was very strong willpower to actually drive the whole nation to adopt. With 36 million downloads, you tell me it is not possible. Before [the Covid-19 pandemic], people said it is not possible to digitalise,” he added.

“MySejahtera is a very good example of when there is a will there's a way.”

The panellists also noted that entrepreneurs need to put patients in the centre of innovation in the face of issues such as stringent regulations and talent shortages.

For instance, Saravanan said that healthcare will be more prevalent in homes with technologies such as 5G allowing for remote care. This is able to address issues such as labour shortage, as patients can remain at home.

“We have a huge labour shortage problem. You go to a hospital in any country and we cannot find nurses and workers. That's the actual reason that we need to adopt [bringing healthcare to homes] because we have a fewer number of doctors and workforce within the hospital,” he explained.