Healthcare is an information intensive sector with complex care delivery processes where effective use of patients' medical data and direct integration of lab results would help improve the continuum of care, minimise medical errors, lower costs and increase quality of care. Infocomm technology can be a powerful enabler to this process as it opens up new possibilities of how data can be integrated and unleashed to better manage patients' care, better facilitate communication among care providers, empower people to manage their own health through monitoring systems etc. Infocomm can also enable the re-engineering of processes and workflows through the development of an integrated healthcare delivery system to address the challenges faced by the sector.
The goal of the iN2015 Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences plan is to accelerate sectoral transformation through an infocomm-enabled personalised healthcare delivery system to achieve high quality clinical care, service excellence, cost-effectiveness and strong clinical research. The plan aims to achieve the following outcomes:
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A common information network and data standards that enable integration and coordination of care such that patients are treated at the most appropriate point of care;
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Linkages to outsourced clinical services or clinical decision support systems to reduce duplicate tests, costs and medical errors;
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Allowing individuals greater ease to access health information to manage their own health;
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Linkages between biomedical and healthcare to facilitate translation of new biomedical discoveries into novel healthcare applications and treatments.
Click
here
to view the iN2015 Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences Report.
To promote the use of infocomm in the healthcare sector, IDA has developed the following initiatives to promote IT adoption, innovation, training and collaboration among service providers and professionals.
To Develop New Models of Distance Care for the Elderly
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), in collaboration with Ministry of Health (MOH), is inviting the industry to participate in the
Telehealth Call-for-Collaboration (CFC)
. This CFC aims to develop new models of distance care for the elderly - at home, within the community or at institutions such as nursing homes - assisted by Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
Past CFCs:
Integrated Clinic Management Systems (CMS) Programme
Launched in 2006, the IDA Integrated Clinic Management Systems (CMS) programme aims to encourage GP clinics to adopt and leverage on infocomm technologies to facilitate operations and clinical improvements in their patient care.
The integrated CMS facilitates scalability of the GP infrastructure by enabling consistent and standards based interface with different healthcare provider systems. Secured and seamless information flow will allow GPs to plan the patient's treatment in an integrated and coordinated manner with other hospitals and step-down care providers. Through this programme, GPs will have the capability to easily plug into the national healthcare network and achieve MOH's "One Singaporean, One Electronic Medical Record" vision.
The CMS is available for subscription through CrimsonLogic.
GP-IT Enablement Programme
Building on the momentum of the CMS Programme which has resulted in most GPs having some form of IT system in place, the GP-IT Enablement Programme was conceptualised in 2010 as the next phase of GP IT adoption. It aims to support more sophisticated IT usage for GPs through introduction of an IT-enabled clinical foundation that contains linkages to the National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) and care services such as laboratory and diagnostic radiology results. GPs currently participating in the CMS Programme will be transited to the IT-enabled clinical foundation when the system is implemented.
Healthcare Innovation Programme
A two-year collaboration between IDA and Motorola Solutions Asia Pacific was started in 2011 to incubate innovative enterprise mobile applications for the healthcare sector and deploying these to local healthcare clusters first and later to the rest of the region.
Health IT Professional Development
For professional development and networking in Health IT, the following initiatives are available:
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Funding support for skills development in Healthcare:
Hybrid Skills Development Programme
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Professional development for both IT and non-IT professionals to increase their domain specific knowledge to better support health IT initiatives through the Health Informatics Programme by the School of Computing (SoC), NUS. Course is eligible for HSDP grant and more information will be made available through SoC.
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Network with fellow Health IT professionals through the Singapore Computer Society's
Healthcare IT Special Interest Group (SIG)
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Learn and exchange experiences with international clinicians and IT managers at the annual
Health Informatics Summit
