Total Health

Energy-Saving: The key to affordability in healthcare

Yeeling Chua — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:13:10 +0000

The standards of healthcare are improving throughout the world, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, where countries are seeing an exponential improvement in quality of healthcare services provided. The flip side of this coin however, is the unavoidable rising cost that comes along with improved health services. While usually resulting in a heavier burden on the government in the form of subsidies, which in turn translating into higher personal taxes for citizens on the ground, Schneider Electric believes that hospitals too, can play a part to offset this growing bane.

Healthcare standards must go hand in hand with more efficient IT systems, such as intelligent Building Management Systems, which translate into significant savings on energy. Structured cabling and IP networks as well can contribute to a lower operating cost in hospitals, allowing them to remain profitable even with higher running costs.

Schneider Electric believes that the key to smart, affordable designs lies in developing a comprehensive energy management strategy. He introduces the concept of energy performance contracting, which solves the funding dilemma by illustrating how the costs saved through energy savings will be sufficient to outweigh that of the project.

Growing investment opportunities in China

Yeeling Chua — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:17:17 +0000

Healthcare reform in China is a growing priority in the Chinese government. This strategy takes on primarily with the propelling of private healthcare, which the Chinese realise as the most promising aspect to a strong healthcare system. Liberal investment in healthcare, as well as fewer exit restrictions are gradual steps that bring the Chinese healthcare model up to standards. They will best stimulate greater private equity investment opportunities.

The Opinions on Further Encouraging and Guiding Social Capital is a recently enacted policy that effectively removes some of the existing barriers that prevent foreign investment in Medical Institutions. Another policy recently implemented encourages integration, reorganisation and restructuring of medical resources. Together, these policies work hand-in-hand to promote investment in the private healthcare sector.

Today’s legal and policy developments lie in stark contrast with those a few decades ago, and demonstrate the exponential improvements in healthcare. We are expecting some emerging industries in healthcare, especially in senior care facilities, specialist medical treatment, and medical devices, just to name a few.

Read the full article here.

The Healthcare World Asia 2013 is an event that draws more than 500+ leaders in private healthcare, investors and hospital operators. Click here to find out more!

10 tips for effective hospital IT projects

Yeeling Chua — Tue, 21 May 2013 01:04:00 +0000

Are you planning to implement IT projects in your hospital? Are you planning to upgrade your hospital IT infrastructure? Or do you want to know the factors to be mindful of when you execute hospital IT projects? Dr Michael Hussin B. Muin, Chief Information Officer of The Medical City, Philippines, has shared with us 10 tips for effective hospital IT projects.

Buy mature products while build unavailable features/systems
Local vs. International markets
Vendor evaluation – know the core competencies
Project charter – know the problem and identify success criteria
Work on IT governance structure
Common platforms e.g. Server Technologies, Programming Language, Database, IT Competencies
Build the integration into the planning
Project ownership
Project perspective – Implementation is not an adoption
Culture determines results

With these 10 tips, Dr Michael has asked 10 crucial questions which could drive you towards the implementation of effective hospital IT projects. Want to know more about the 10 questions? Click here to download the presentation now!

Join us at Healthcare World Asia 2013 to meet more than 500 c-level executives from top 50 healthcare operators mainly from Asia. Join in the discussion on how to optimize the daily operational processes in your hospital. Visit our website to find out more!

Motivating and staffing hospitals

Yeeling Chua — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:46:56 +0000

Monitoring private medical hospitals is never an easy thing, especially if you have more than fourteen thousand private medical institutions sprawled all over an immense piece of land, like Saudi Arabia.

Such is the problem the Private Health Sector Assistive Agency is encountering these days, with licensed pharmacies and health establishments at 14,650 while qualified medical staff only at 98,800. There are approximately 6 trained medical or technical workers in every medical institution, a figure too small for comfort.

Apart from staffing issues, there seems also to exist the problem of incentives, or rather, appropriate and effective punishments. This is coupled with lack of support from various departments, insufficient trained workers and lack of suitable punishments.

There are already many guidelines that outline how hospitals should be structured. Some of these include disinfection, signage indicating clear directions for visitors, health standards and engineering requirements.

Read the full article here.

Join us at the Healthcare World Asia 2013 where leaders in this field come together and do business with one another, consequently improving the global healthcare standards.

Medical Tourism hot in Thailand

Yeeling Chua — Fri, 17 May 2013 06:39:03 +0000

Currently, Thailand has more than 20 hospitals that are recognised by accreditation boards in the United States, and more than 10 of them have been approved for specialized treatment of heart disease, breast cancer, strokes and other diseases.

The Thai government is going aggressive on medical tourism, possibly with the aim of developing Thailand to becoming the top medical tourism destination in the region. This, according to the Ministry of Public Health, will be carried out with an approximate 10% increase in medical tourism business per year.

Built on an existing 1 million foreign patients visiting Thai hospitals a year, the Thai ministry will be extending the length of medical visas for tourists by 60 days, and allow 4 accompanying people to travel along with the patient. Foreign patients will be encouraged to seek treatment at private hospitals, such that beds in public hospitals can focus on catering to the Thai citizenry.

Read the full article here.

Join us at the Healthcare World Asia 2013 where we will be bringing together leaders from both private and public healthcare industries, who will be discussing to great lengths on the direction this will be taking in the near future.

Robots, the new tenants in hospitals

Yeeling Chua — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:02:34 +0000

Hospitals and robots have recently struck an invisible alliance, with most hospitals observing a drastic increase in utilization of robots in various areas, ranging from immediate patient care to big data processors.

1) Xenex, a 5-foot, 2-inch robot fights bacteria by flashing hospital rooms with ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet light damages the surface of the walls of bacteria and this exposes bacteria DNA to the hostile environment, effectively preventing any form of reproduction.

2) iRobot, the company known for their bomb-disposal products has a multitude of healthcare products too. The Remote Presence Virtual + Independent Telemedicine Assistant is a bot that allows doctors to care for their patients remotely. As telemedicine grows in popularity, so will devices like the RP-VITA.

3) Developed initially for the military, prosthetics have long since made their way into the comsumer market. The BiOM prosthetic ankle system assists the user in walking, allowing him to walk pass sharp steps with relative ease as it powers itself, unlike typical prosthetics which tend to drag at an undesired angle.

4) Doctors have only 2 hands, but when it comes to performing surgeries, many surgeons would be delighted to have an automated assistance. Robotics excel in precision, and thus reduces blood loss and reduces recovery time for patients.

Read the full article here.

Join us at the Digital Healthcare World Asia 2013 where we will bring together the leaders in medical technology and informatics. Interact personally with them to find out what the newest devices are on the market!

Healthcare in China on the rise

Yeeling Chua — Wed, 15 May 2013 07:21:30 +0000

10 years ago at the forefront of the SARS outbreak in Central and South-East Asia, China appeared barely able to contain the ensuing scare. This year in 2013 with the new avian H9N1 virus circulating, the world watches a superior Chinese response. This time with high levels of efficiency and control, there is no doubt that the ten years of healthcare reforms have significantly improved China’s ability to handle and combat medical threats. This has even extended to benefiting the public, where improved care, longer lifespans and decrease in infant mortality can be easily observed.

Healthcare in China has evolved since 60 years ago, where it was focused primarily on the individual. The focus has since shifted away from the individual, towards a collective communal consumption activity, where the government sets prices for treatments. China is today split between developing a free-market model where innovation and development in pharmaceutical and drug discovery is encouraged, and offering available low-cost healthcare services to its patients.

Meanwhile, the opportunity for China to play a leading role in international drug development and clinical trials has opened, and have had so far significant investments made by large multinational firms in support of biomedical research.

Read the full article here.

Find out first-hand the opportunities and challenges in healthcare in China from industrial leaders themselves. Join us at the Healthcare World Asia 2013 where we will be bringing together more than 500+ international delegates to discuss on the most pertinent issues on healthcare in Asia.

Healthcare IT market in Asia-Pacific to grow

Yeeling Chua — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:31:00 +0000

Governments of Asian populations are recognizing their rapid aging populations and are recently offering incentives, subsidies and tax cuts in order to encourage patients to opt for home care, thus reducing the strain on the government-depended public hospitals. The option for home care not only improves the quality of care for patients, it also frees up stress on the healthcare infrastructure, workforce and expenditure on government run hospitals.

In the recent months, product and technology improvements have made high-tech mobility an increasingly used option for patients, with light-weight material being incorporated in crutches and walking sticks, and electronic and motorised wheelchairs.

Read the full article here.

Join us at the Digital Healthcare World Asia 2013 where experts from digital healthcare as well as private healthcare come together to mix and network with one another.

Assessing Important Considerations in Implementing an Asset Distribution System

Yeeling Chua — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:10:00 +0000

Mercedes Gonzalez, the Vice President of Operations from Philippines Healthway Medical, has shared with us on how to assess the important considerations in implementing an asset distribution system in the hospital. There are three main strategies:

Defining important factors to be used as evaluation criteria to decide on purchasing and distributing resources
Recognizing the importance of prioritizing resources for clinics with different patient traffic
Moving from transactions and order fulfilment to strategic sourcing and integrating physician and management buy-in

When the management of a healthcare group wants to make decisions on purchasing and distributing resources, they have to understand the difference between single entity hospital and clinic chains. Besides that, the purchasing power of volume, accreditation of suppliers, evaluation of equipment as well as bids and quotations are also factors that should be taken into consideration when implementing the asset distribution system.

The healthcare management also must be able to recognize the importance of prioritizing resources for clinics with different patient traffic such as different client mix, history of performance of a clinic and borrowing of resources equipment. Ms Gonzalez has demonstrated two different systems to manage the asset distribution known as Inventory Management System (IMS) and Fixed Asset Monitoring System (FAMS).

For more detailed descriptions of each system, download Ms Gonzalez’s presentation here! We welcome you to join us at Healthcare World Asia 2013 to exchange ideas on how to manage the supply chain of both public and private hospitals. Visit our website to find out more about the event!

Major Growth in 5 Healthcare Industries

Yeeling Chua — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:29:25 +0000

According to Rhenu Bhuller from Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific vice president for healthcare, ‘Frost & Sullivan finds that healthcare expenditure in Asia Pacific will almost double in the next six years with the largest share coming from China, Japan and India, the increasing life expectancy in the region will also result in more elderly requiring long-term care’.

In 2012, Malaysia’s healthcare industry was worth US$2.25 billion. This is set to increase to a modest US$3.65 billion in less than 6 years. The Economic Transformation Programme is set to generate about 180,000 healthcare jobs by 2020 in industries of pharmaceutical, biotech and medical devices.

It is forecasted that major growth will take place in the following industries:

· Speciality Hospitals

· Medical Tourism

· Private Medical Insurance

· Healthcare IT

· Day Care Surgery / Healthcare Centre

Read the full article here.

What better way to learn more about the latest developments in healthcare, than to meet the industry’s leaders themselves. Join us at the Healthcare World Asia 2013 where you will meet more than 500+ international healthcare professionals.