Last month, me and my team at HATI International Technologies attended APHM International Health Conference and Exhibition. For those in the Healthcare Technology industry would know that APHM is one of the largest healthcare conferences held in Malaysia and this year was the 25th year of the conference. APHM totally lived up to its promise of offering a strong platform to offer insights on leadership, technology, and innovation in healthcare.

We showcased our innovative products and solutions in booth 162 and 165 at the event. Over the period of 3 days, more than 200 delegates and decisions makers visited the booth. We had a lot of interesting conversations with the MD, CEO, COO, CFO, Clinical Heads of healthcare organizations from Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Myanmar, and the Philippines. It’s always a pleasure to interact with the bright minds in the industry who are looking for innovative ways to deliver better patients care and reduce the administrative costs.

With the proliferation of latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Analytics, Malaysia is at the stage of digital transformation and that is evident in the healthcare industry as well. During APHM, I really enjoyed the conversations with over 50 senior healthcare leaders who were looking for solutions which can help them in their Healthcare IT transformation.

At the HATI International Technologies’ booths, the invigorating conversations between our team and the delegates revolved around understanding our solutions, our innovative product development approach, product roadmap, and our experience of implementing the solutions at several large multi-specialty hospitals.  The attendees especially appreciated the comprehensiveness of our solutions and the localization features for Malaysia and ASEAN countries.

There were several interesting sessions. Some of the noteworthy ones include –

Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, Minister of Health Malaysia gave the opening address at the event. He emphasized on the need of public-private collaborations to ensure better healthcare delivery in Malaysia. He said that the co-existence of public and private healthcare can help in making healthcare more affordable. He emphasized that the complementary existence of public and private partnership would also help in making healthcare more accessible for the population at large. He highlighted the critical role of technology in changing the face of health care in future. Dr S. Subramaniam also updated the audience about MyHdw, a data warehouse solution, which was launched in April 2017. MyHdw is designed to collect relevant data and conduct analysis and help in designing of the healthcare delivery system using evidence-based approach. The solution integrates health data from both public and private healthcare providers to optimise the healthcare delivery system. Such data analytics can help in not only financial returns but also tremendously help in improving the overall quality of care.

APHM President, Datuk Dr Jacob Thomas, in his welcome address mentioned that there is a drop of 30% in the number of patients at the private hospitals. The affordability of the treatment at public hospitals is what is making those more attractive for the patients. Resonating with the speech of Minister of Health, Dr Jacob emphasised on the importance of tight collaboration between the Health Ministry and private hospitals. Such collaboration can help patients avoid long wait times for things like CT scans and MRIs.

Another interesting session was by Sachin Chaudhary, Partner in McKinsey & Company, Singapore. He mentioned that technology, healthcare reforms, and risk relocation are some of the major forces which will affect the health care in future. He believes that technology disruptions will bring in disruptions in the healthcare industry as well. According to Sachin, in the next few years, the healthcare systems will evolve with interconnected and integrated hospital systems – these systems will help in enhancing the overall performance and population health. As someone who is passionate about healthcare technology, I absolutely agree with Sachin. Getting the right technology backbone is essential for healthcare transformation.

Tami Minnier, Vice Chair of Board Joint Commission International, in her session, talked about the “invisible crisis” in the form of medical errors. Of course, that’s the exact reason why more and more healthcare institutes need to adopt EHR systems which can help them in reducing the medical errors and focus on patient safety.

All in all, we at HATI International Technologies had a great time at APHM. We are looking forward to another great show next year! Till then, do connect with me if you would like to know more about innovative and comprehensive healthcare solutions.