Better healthcare requires more than app development

In the wake of COVID-19, healthcare has become one of the fastest growing industries to adopt digital transformation strategies to prepare for the future and revolutionize medical care. Innovations such as artificial intelligence chatbots, cloud computing, and mobile applications have become indispensable components of healthcare.

Google Cloud, Accenture and Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS), a Singapore-based health technology company, announced a collaboration to develop data-driven applications to improve healthcare worker productivity, patient care experiences and population health outcomes.

Under a multi-year agreement, IHiS will partner with Accenture to deploy Apigee, Google Cloud’s API management platform. Apigee helps IHiS-managed systems unlock data and services that developers can then access to create new applications and capabilities. This eliminates data silos and provides flexible interoperability across Singapore’s healthcare ecosystem.

“Together with Google Cloud and Accenture, we can extend secure API gateway access to trusted third-party developers, making it easier for patients to access their health information and providing deeper insights to inform population health management programs and public health policy” – Alan Goh, Deputy CEO of IHiS explained.

With Apigee, developers can use IHiS APIs to create applications and tools—supported by integrated workflows and artificial intelligence models—that optimize staffing and workloads. APIs allow software systems to quickly exchange information within and across organizational boundaries, reducing the need for duplicate data sets that take up costly enterprise storage space.

For example, IHiS and SingHealth launched the Facial Recognition Automated Visitor Management System (FRAVMS) for a smoother and more efficient visitor registration process. Apigee provided the framework that accelerated the development of FRAVMS while increasing its scalability, minimizing the need for ongoing maintenance, and future-proofing its integration architecture.

Apigee provides security features such as encryption key verification, identity mediation, traffic monitoring, and threat and vulnerability detection to control who is using your APIs. It also protects patient data in accordance with regulations such as Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and the Healthcare Services Act 2020, as well as international standards such as Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), the 7th Healthcare level (HL7) and Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM).

“Our Apigee-based, interoperable IHiS enterprise plan integrates IHiS systems, applications and capabilities under a single strategy – enabling real-time data-driven insights and more agile operations so your employees and partners can deliver personalized service. , efficient and informed care,” said Ng Wee Wei, Southeast Asia Market Leader and Country Managing Director, Accenture.

Sherie Ng, Country Director, Google Cloud Singapore, said: “With Apigee, which enables API-driven connectivity at scale, IT staff and developers can now repurpose data, help their organizations overcome workforce shortages, and leverage landscape and they can focus on improving the transition between outpatient care. care, and the promotion of preventive care and precision medicine.”

Image source: iStockphoto/Dilok Klaisataporn