Singapore Healthcare Technology Lab Opens In April

Singapore’s first healthcare technology laboratory will open in April this year in a bid to transform patient care in public hospitals. The lab is being launched as part of a joint partnership between the Health Ministry’s IT division, Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS) and Allscripts, a US-based healthcare solutions provider.  

The agreement between all involved parties was signed on Tuesday, signaling the beginning of the lab development. The lab aims to develop software, which will improve the quality of patient care.

Under the agreement, Allscripts will train staff on its methodologies for software development quality assurance, sustaining engineering and operational support, while IHiS will provide access to clinical staff and resources for the definition, deployment and testing of software features and solutions.

The laboratory will work on enhancing medication management. Projects may include emergency, critical care and specialist mobility systems at hospitals. The lab is also working on interface software for robots to automate and speed up care processes.

The lab will work closely with doctors and healthcare staff at Singapore General Hospital, KK Women's & Children's Hospital, Changi General Hospital and Khoo Teck Puat Hospital to conduct trials and refine the advanced applications.

The joint team will also explore tele-health, mobile health and healthcare analytics solutions.

The IHiS-Allscripts Technology Laboratory will accelerate IT solutions for SingHealth, Alexandra Health and Eastern Health Alliance regional health systems and the Asian healthcare industry.

IHiS Chief Executive Officer, Dr Chong Yoke Sin, said, “The uniqueness about this collaboration is the fact that we can work directly with the developers of Allscripts in order to develop systems which fit our unique environment. We have also got the understanding that we will go ahead of the curve and build innovations that maybe will have that wow factor for our patients.”