Chan Chi Ling, Founder & Director, Equitech Collective

​​​​​​1. How do you use your role to ensure that technology and policy are truly inclusive?

In my role as Founder of Equitech, I lead a team that builds equity-advancing technology that catalyzes system transformation across health systems primarily in Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the United States.

Through our non-profit work, we do similar work in lower middle income countries such as Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar. 

Apart from building technology and leveraging AI, I advise governments and public health systems in health systems design and innovation, to enable preventive health at scale.

Something I keep top-of-mind is in creating service models that are inclusive - accessible to most rather than only a few.

I also teach a class at NUS Yong Yoo Lin School of Medicine about emergency response in infectious disease control, which helps to prepare future health practitioners for future pandemics. 

2. What’s a moment in your career when you saw firsthand how technology or a new policy changed a citizen’s life for the better?

Two pivotal moments: one was when I was deploying technology for Singapore’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout, and another was when I started building electronic health records systems with refugee populations along the Thai-Myanmar border.

In the former I saw how technology could help to overcome access barriers to help Singapore achieve herd immunity and accelerate reopening of borders, and in the latter I witnessed how it is possible to achieve outsize impact through local capacity building in settings with extremely scarce resources.

3. What was the most impactful project you worked on this year, and how did you measure its success in building trust and serving the needs of the public?

The most impactful project I worked on this year was to launch a health activation product suite ‘Speedback’ in Singapore and New Zealand, destined to support health systems’ transition towards virtual care models that could enable a single staff to multiply the number of patients who need access to care.

In New Zealand, we supported partners serving the Pacific Island communities, enabling a cohort of diabetes and hypertension patients to better manage their blood pressure and blood sugar levels, and achieving operational and clinical outcomes that far exceeded our expectations. Its success is measured by actual clinical outcomes (such as Hba1c levels, blood pressure controls), and deepened trust between patients and providers. 

4. What was one unexpected lesson you learned this year about designing for real people? This can be about a specific project or a broader lesson about your work.

That resource is everywhere - if we’re open to seeing it. Building electronic health records systems along the Thai-Myanmar border taught me that the true power of technology is in scaling teams and catalyzing systems change.

That impact is amplified when we build with, not for.

In our work building an electronic health records system for migrant health along the Thai-Myanmar border, this process was step-wise: we went from building digital literacy through teaching local clinic staff how to type and use tablets, to training them to use a new EHR system, to enabling them to build their own by building local technology capacity, including supporting the hospital in hiring their first software engineer.

Technology can be a catalyst, but enduring change almost always comes from people. 

5. We hear a lot about AI. What's a practical example of how AI can be used to make government services more inclusive and trustworthy?

AI can make government services more inclusive and trustworthy when it seeks not to replace humans, but to free up human capacity for them to focus on what only humans are best placed to do: handling more complex edge cases, building positive human relationships and connections, and taking responsibility and accountability for outcomes.

If AI can help us build more accountable services by freeing up humans to make better judgement and take greater ownership of outcomes, it would be a great leap forward. 

6. How are you preparing for the next wave of change in the public sector? What new skill, approach, or technology are you most excited to explore in the coming year?

I’m most excited about creating better defaults that enable good health through lifestyle and behavioural modification.

There is a lot we still haven’t cracked in terms of human psychology and motivation behind good health, but that is where most progress can be had because good health does not start with the healthcare system, it starts with us taking care of ourselves and cultivating the right habits to prevent the onset of ill health.

The skills I’m exploring in the coming year are in the intersection of design, clinical care, and psychology. 

7. What advice do you have for public sector innovators who want to build a career focused on serving all citizens?

Stay close to the ground, because that’s where you have the greatest chance of discovering what works.

There will be many temptations to advance your careers in ways that would make you further and further removed from the problem that you initially set out to solve.

Remember why you started out on this path and stay focused on that intent, even as more distractions (including rewarding distractions!) arise along the way.

While doing that, find other public sector innovators and learn from them, stay close to inspiration.

Innovation is hard work, takes time and patience, and finding your tribe helps you stay the course over the long haul. 

8. Who inspires you to build a more inclusive and trustworthy public sector?

Often, it’s the partners we serve who inspires us to see further and keep doing this work.

The partners we serve come from the community, hospital systems, non-profit organisations, frontline workers… the people who have their eyes peeled to needs on the ground and who keep systems running well for everyday people by doing their job well. 

9. If you had an unlimited budget, what would your dream project be?

Edit capitalism, for a more equitable world where fewer people are left behind, and where we can live in harmonious balance with our natural environment. 

10. Outside tech, what excites you the most?

Apart from building good tech, building good teams that can go the distance.