Most popular stories, September 2024

Oleh Si Ying Thian

This month’s top reads centered around public healthcare innovations built on common platforms set up by central/whole-of-government agencies.

Most popular stories, September 2024. Image: Canva

Digital governments from Singapore and Japan also align on the common theme of “not tech for tech’s sake, but to address citizen’s needs."

1. GPT rollout in Singapore’s largest healthcare group

The GenAI-powered documentation tool, Note Buddy, summarises relevant information during doctor-patient conversations in real time, and organises them into clinical notes. Click image to access article >>>

By leveraging a common platform like Tandem, GenAI innovations such as Note Buddy can eventually be deployed across other public healthcare institutions, said Synapxe’s Director of Data aNalytics and AI, and Chief Data Officer, Andy Ta.

2. Patient-centric platform converging health and social needs

The Singapore public healthcare provider aims to tap on aggregated health and social data from the new portal to better support the national population health strategies. Click image to access article >>>

“We had healthcare utilisation data around the population profile in our regions, and did not want to hold the data only with us”, said National Healthcare Group’s Chief of Population Data, Jing Fang Ong, adding that community partners would benefit from the same data to design the programmes for residents.

3. Aligning tech to solve citizen’s needs

Singapore’s Public Service Science, Technology and Engineering Conference recognised agencies for their projects to innovate within the public sector, including HPB, MPA, LTA, GovTech, and HTX. Click image to access article >>>

“We must make sure that our people understand the challenges of the world deeply and fall in love with the problem, but not fall in love with the solution,” said Singapore’s Minister-in-Charge of the Public Service, Chan Chun Sing.

4. Healthtech co-creation between healthcare and industry key focus

*The new innovation lab aims to support the co-development of new healthtech solutions and platforms between Synapxe, public healthcare bodies, and industry partners. Click image to access article >>>*

“Me personally, I want to press a button and say, you know, reply to all these emails for me. If I never have to reply, that will save two hours a day for me,” said National University Health System’s Kee Yuan Ngiam.

5. A ground-up approach to Japan’s digital government?

The Head of Intelligence Research of Japan’s Digital Agency, Chikako Masuda, shares how the agency’s research unit supports its international collaboration efforts. Click image to access article >>>

“Local officials work hard to patch the gaps and inconveniences that may be created from how public services have been traditionally designed. Digital tech should be used to overcome these problems and improve general satisfaction,” said Digital Agency, Government of Japan's Head of Intelligence Research, Chikako Masuda.