Speech by Minister for Health, Mr Gan Kim Yong, at the Opening Ceremony of the International Conference on Big Data and Analytics in Healthcare, 9 July 2013

Prof Danny Poo, Chairman of the Organising Committee,

Distinguished speakers,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning to all of you.

1.         It gives me great pleasure to join you this morning at the inaugural International Conference on Big Data and Analytics in Healthcare organised by Centre for Health Informatics at the National University of Singapore.

2.         I am heartened to see amongst us thought leaders, key executives and experts in healthcare and healthcare informatics from Singapore, Asia and beyond. This is indeed a great opportunity for sharing of knowledge and exchange of ideas on this important subject.

3.         The Ministry of Health has recognised the need for an integrated healthcare system in order to provide good healthcare to Singaporeans, effectively and efficiently. To do this, we need to systematically align the whole spectrum of service providers of healthcare services, from primary care, tertiary care, to intermediate and long-term care around the patient to provide patient centred care. By June 2013 (this year), the National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) system has been implemented in all public hospitals, specialist centres, polyclinics, as well as some community hospitals, nursing homes, and general practitioners. We are now at the next phase of implementation to rollout more functionalities to more healthcare providers.

4.         Good progress has also been made over the years with regards to Information Technology adoption and enablement in our Restructured Hospitals.  For example, four of our hospitals, namely Tan Tock Seng Hospital, National University Hospital, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and Singapore General Hospital, have been certified at the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Stage 6 levels. This bears testimony to our commitment to using information and decision support systems for the effective and safe care of our patients. With the continued advancement of technology,, I am confident that we can do more for our patients.

5.         Healthcare analytics is one important area to develop. We already have extensive clinical, health financing and patient-care administrative data from our IT systems. Combining these data with Lifestyle, Geospatial, Behavioural and genotype data, will provide us with better insights into the health risks of our population and discover new co-relationships between data sets. These insights could be used by patients and care providers to further improve care delivery, guide policy development and enhance patient well-being.

6.         To leverage on Healthcare Analytics, we need new skillsets and competencies. In addition to clinical and Information Technology professionals, we would also need to train more data scientists, industrial engineers and operational researchers in the Healthcare domain. The Centre for Health Informatics (CHI), or CHI, was set up last year by the School of Computing, National University of Singapore with support from the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), and MOH Holdings (MOHH). Since 2012, CHI has developed and launched training courses in collaboration with leading overseas higher learning institutes for infocomm professionals to acquire healthcare IT skills. CHI has also developed undergraduate and post-graduate level talents for the industry through attachments as well as electives and specialisations in healthcare IT.

7.         IDA works with CHI to drive the development of the Health Informatics human capital in Singapore through uniquely designed courses that cover a range of technical disciplines and practical deep dives at the functional level. This includes training courses, on-the-job training in collaboration with leading technology providers and industry projects in collaboration with major healthcare institutions.

8.         With these skills, it allows for the creation of innovative healthcare IT prototypes and solutions in collaboration with industry partners, to reshape the healthcare industry and revolutionise patient care. I hope that this initiative will position Singapore as the thought leader in healthcare IT adoption and implementation.

9.         I would like to take this opportunity to thank our clusters and partners, who have contributed to the development and implementation of health informatics and healthcare analytics. I look forward to your continued support and the extensive cross-sectoral collaboration and cooperation within the healthcare sector.

10.       This inaugural conference provides a unique platform for thought leadership and the sharing of best practices in healthcare informatics and healthcare analytics. I wish all of you a fruitful conference for the next two days ahead.

 11.       Thank you very much.