Smart hospitals will be increasingly reliant on high-tech advancements, like AI, to streamline administrative processes to a significant degree.
connect with the doctors and wait for the doctors to arrive on site to the ward,” Smart Ward lead and senior nurse manager Lim Mei Ling told Channel News Asia, adding that the device can also scan things like medications and bandages to update doctors and let them make quick clinical decisions.
At another Singaporean facility, Alexandria Hospital( AH), smart beds monitor patients’ condition around the clock, helping nurses take care of in-patients. This system allows one nurse to manage several wards and reduces the number of bedside nurses by 30 percent, The Straits Times reported.
Digitalisation could also increase safety by having computers customise drug options for hospitalised patients based on their conditions and needs to prevent health risks, an all too common occurrence in hospitals worldwide. Indeed, one in 20 patients“ experience preventable medication-related harm in health care services,” according to the World Health Organization report Global burden of preventable medication-related harm in health care.
The same computerised system could also make food choices safer for inpatients.“ For instance, diabetics should be able to order food through a device at their bed, like a tablet, that only lists lowsugar meals to keep their blood glucose levels under check,” said Dr Low.
Such changes may be low-hanging fruit for many hospitals, such as Farrer Park Hospital, one of the most high-tech medical facilities in Singapore and one that continues to introduce promising digital technologies, such as AI-assisted colorectal cancer diagnosis. Colonoscopy is the most accurate diagnostic tool for colorectal cancer because it involves inserting a camera-fitted tube through the anus and the intestine to spot cancer or precancerous growths, called polyps. Some studies suggest that
AI-assisted colonoscopy could help doctors identify a greater number of polyps in real-time by analysing colon tissue images. Though it’ s unclear whether this polyp detection increase can translate into lower colorectal cancer incidence and mortality, AI-assisted colonoscopy will no doubt improve polyp diagnosis.
Beyond improving clinical care, smart hospitals will be increasingly reliant on high-tech advancements, like AI, to streamline administrative processes to a significant degree.
“ When I was at Farrer Park, AI cut down the time for financial processes from days to hours or even minutes because it generated financial reports and bills in a very short time. This also reduced the number of people managing these processes as you just needed a few staff members to double-check that AI made no mistake,” said Dr Low.
To make the most of these high-tech improvements though, hospitals will have to integrate themselves within a smart healthcare system that works in sync.
“ I think the true value of HoW [ Hospital without Walls ] is the focus on the community. Alongside the Healthier SG programme, we will be working to anchor the patients in the community with primary or secondary care providers, with more emphasis on preventive care and keeping people healthy, so the hospital really becomes a last resort,” said Dr Ng Yih Yng, Director of the Centre for Healthcare Innovation’ s Digital and Smart Health Office, to Hospital Management Asia.
“ Today, many still think of hospitals as where they should go for better care. But we want to fix that paradigm: we want people to anchor their care in the community for preventive, continuing and transitional care; and hospitals should only be solving the acute and complex care issues before returning them back.” n
Digitalisation could also increase safety by having computers customise drug options for hospitalised patients based on their conditions and needs to prevent health risks, an all too common occurrence in hospitals worldwide.
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