IHH Healthcare migrates Malaysia and S’pore database systems to the cloud
Private healthcare group IHH Healthcare has moved several on-premises database systems from its hospitals in Malaysia and Singapore to the cloud.
IHH Singapore’s key application workloads, including its electronic medical record (EMR), enterprise data warehouse and laboratory information systems (LIS), have been migrated to Oracle Exadata Database Service on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Meanwhile, IHH Malaysia consolidated its data systems, including patient management system, appointment booking system, LIS and invoices, and migrated them to Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer.
In a statement, Oracle claimed its cloud service was chosen for its “scalable high performance and integrated high availability, data protection, security and disaster recovery capabilities.”
WHY IT MATTERS
As one of the world’s largest healthcare networks with more than 80 hospitals in 10 countries, IHH Healthcare needed a ‘robust’ database platform to manage and secure data volumes while leveraging it to improve patient outcomes.
Consolidating its disparate on-premises systems into the cloud is part of IHH’s efforts to modernize its hospital operations in its home markets.
“This migration marks an important step toward creating a unified digital health ecosystem, critical to dismantling data silos and improving data analytics capabilities for our physicians,” said CIO Linus Tham.
The move also improves patient and physician user experiences with faster and more reliable access to secure, up-to-date information, Oracle said.
In addition, IHH uses Oracle’s cloud while meeting local regulatory requirements.
THE BIG TREND
The Adoption of patient information and data technologies is generally high among hospitals in Southeast Asia, although it has yet to catch up with the adoption rate of their peers in major Asian economies such as China and India, according to a recent research report from LEK Consulting.
In Singapore for example According to a Philips survey report from last year, many hospitals are looking to or have begun using cloud-based technologies and workflow technologies such as EHRs and flow automation to somehow mitigate the impact of the growing healthcare workforce shortage .
A collaborative approach to digitalization is one of the ways hospitals in Malaysia are looking to improve the patient experience. Island Hospital uses EHRs and mobile technologies to facilitate collaboration for preventive care. In January last year, the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council signed a memorandum of understanding with HIMSS to collaborate in strengthening the digital capabilities of local hospitals and strengthening the “Malaysia Healthcare” brand.
The The transition to public and hybrid cloud models for EMR systems and individual services, while recognized for its value, remains “uncharted territory” in Asia-Pacific, HIMSS noted during a recent roundtable with government and regional health authorities representatives there.
ON THE RECORD
“Today’s healthcare organizations must manage, secure and leverage vast amounts of data to improve patient outcomes, all while controlling costs,” said Chin Ying Loong, regional director of Oracle ASEAN & South Asia Growing Economies.
“Cloud technology serves as the cornerstone for the future of healthcare, facilitating collaboration and unifying data across the healthcare ecosystem,” he added.