Digital from the start: new medical campus in eastern Singapore
Singapore’s Ministry of Health has officially broken ground for a new medical campus in eastern Singapore.
Located next to the center line of Bedok North MRT Station, Eastern General Hospital (EGH) Campus includes Eastern General Hospital and Eastern Community Hospital. It will provide a range of emergency, inpatient and outpatient care services, as well as continuing and rehabilitative care services. Once completed, it is expected to have a total of approximately 1,400 beds.
WHAT MATTERS
During the groundbreaking ceremony, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung revealed that the EGH campus will be “digitally enabled from the start”, specifically by offering telemedicine.
“For example, during a teleconsultation, doctors can verbally ask whether patients are keeping up with their rehabilitation exercises. Patients will always say yes, but you can’t verify it. The EGH team is working on developing wearable sensors that remotely monitor the frequency and accuracy of prescribed exercises, making teleconsultations more effective,” the minister said.
Given the adoption of telemedicine, the EGH will offer virtual services prior to its targeted opening in 2030; It plans to run virtual wards to support the already overwhelmed Changi General Hospital (CGH) around 2026, Minister Ong revealed. The EGH team will initially be based at CGH, where they can conduct teleconsultations, conduct remote monitoring and move into the community and patients’ homes to provide care.
The EGH campus will also utilize the Computer Automated Virtual Environment to provide visitors with a virtual walkthrough.
In addition, tests for digital twin technology and environmental intelligence are being conducted in the wards, while the use of exoskeleton suits and AI-enabled telerehabilitation solutions are being explored.
THE BIG TREND
The Ministry of Health first presented its plan to build an integrated hospital in eastern Singapore amid the outbreak of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
Minister Ong boasted that the EGH will be a “more pandemic hospital,” designed with wards that can be quickly converted for isolation use and have the flexibility to support alternative working arrangements without making major changes to hospital infrastructure.
Managed by SingHealth, the EGH campus will also benefit from specialist healthcare network support, in partnership with the National Cancer Center Singapore, National Dental Center Singapore, National Heart Center Singapore, National Neuroscience Institute and Singapore National Eye center.