SUNWAY Medical Centre has positioned itself as a pioneer in the area of telemedicine in Malaysia with the introduction of a command centre for telemedicine services early this year.
The telemedicine command centre will serve as the focal point for the coordination and delivery of all telemedicine services.
Telemedicine is a provision of remote clinical advisory services via real-time two-way communication between a patient and a trained healthcare personnel
“Meeting the growing needs of our local and regional patients and customers have encouraged us to set up this command centre,” Sunway Medical Centre CEO Bryan Lin Boon Diann pointed out.
“And we pride the credibility of our telemedicine services as all medical or clinical enquiries will be attended by a certified nurse or medical officer.”
Rolling out the new service is also timely given the current pandemic situation. The first phase of the telemedicine command centre is focused on providing first level healthcare advisory services to patients.
The centre operates on a 24 x 7 basis with patients can either call in, e-mail or reach out through social media platforms, notably Facebook and WhatsApp.
Once the enquiry is received, the attending nurse or medical officer will provide advice or make recommendations to consult a specialist at Sunway Medical Centre. If the patient agrees, the team can also assist in making an appointment with the respective consultant.
The concept of telemedicine and remote monitoring of patients has been discussed in healthcare literature for decades.
Evidence has shown that telemedicine within a disease management plan can improve clinical outcomes and reduce health service utilisation and costs for chronic disease management.
Patient satisfaction levels have also been positive with many being at ease with using technology and having more empowerment in their health status.
“In April 2020, the UK’s Royal College of general practitioners reported that doctors were seeing just 7% of their patients face-to-face, compared with 80% in 2019, proving that the demand for telemedicine is growing significantly,” justified Sunway Medical Centre’s medical director Dr Seow Vei Ken.
“Even countries closer to home such as Indonesia and Thailand have adopted telemedicine to reach patients.”
With social distancing becoming the new norm, Dr Seow foresees such trend to increase exponentially. “At our end, we will continue enhancing our telemedicine command centre to keep up with this growth,” he added.
Future plans include connecting the telemedicine command centre to other hospitals, universities, or other world-class research centres for medical-related education programmes. Major medical related discussions, meetings and conferences can take place digitally for education and consultation purposes. – Jan 19, 2021
