The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permissionSince the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of technology has been on the rise in many industries. The healthcare industry was one of them with telehealth services being rapidly rolled out and offered to patients with different care needs. For example, Alexandra Hospital senior physiotherapist Tan Ee Ling was able to demonstrate wrist-stretching exercises to a patient during a virtual consultation over Zoom, a video-conferencing tool.
Over time, National University Health System has seen a marked up-take in telehealth services and its group chief digital officer Peter Forbes further shared that, “NUHS is currently working on the expansion of its telehealth services across all institutions within the healthcare cluster in order to offer this service to more patients.”
A/Prof Mahesh Choolani, head and senior consultant of the obstetrics and gynaecology department at National University Hospital, remarked that other than telehealth services, the adoption of innovations and technology has also changed the way healthcare institutions manage patient flow. The use of robots and internet-enabled devices also allow physicians to remotely track patients' vital signs and make diagnoses without being physically present. Apart from managing the spread of infection during a pandemic, the use of such technology also reduces manpower requirements and makes hospital operations more efficient and less costly.
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