Sunway Medical Centre introduces a Command Centre for Telemedicine Services

• First phase to provide first level healthcare advisory services to patients
• Patients can call in, email or reach out through social media platforms 24/7

Sunway Medical Centre has introduced a Command Centre for Telemedicine Services, which will serve as the focal point for the coordination and delivery of all of Sunway Medical’s telemedicine services.

Telemedicine refers to provision of remote clinical advisory services via real-time two-way communication between a patient and a trained healthcare personnel. More often, a multi-channel communication including electronic, or digital systems are used for this purpose.

“We believe that necessity is the mother of innovation and as the healthcare industry evolves, we too must move in tandem to meet these growing needs,” says Sunway Medical Centre chief executive officer, Bryan Lin Boon Diann.

Telemedicine can help improve clinical outcomes and reduce health service utilisation and costs for chronic disease management.

“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. Even countries closer to home such as Indonesia and Thailand have adopted telemedicine to reach patients,” explains Sunway Medical Centre’s medical director Dr Seow Vei Ken.

“With social distancing becoming the new norm, we foresee this trend increasing exponentially. On our end, we will continue enhancing our Telemedicine Command Centre to keep up with this growth.”

Meanwhile Lin credits the needs of local and regional patients as a push factor to set up the Command Centre. “We take pride in the credibility of our Telemedicine Services as all medical or clinical enquiries will be attended by a certified nurse or medical officer.”

The Command Centre is also timely, given the current Covid-19 pandemic situation. “We aim to make the patient experience better and in turn improve health outcomes, which is our primary goal of all health services,” adds Lin.

The first phase of the Telemedicine Command Centre provides first level healthcare advisory services to patients. The centre operates on a 24 x 7 basis, and patients can either call in, email or reach out through social media platforms such as 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 Command Centre, for now, will only be set-up in the Sunway Medical Centre, with expansion plans dependent on the growth in the number of patients.

Future plans include connecting the Telemedicine Command Centre to other hospitals, universities, or other world-class research centres for medical related education programs. Major medical related discussions, meetings and conferences can take place digitally for education and consultation purposes. 

The Telemedicine Command Centre at Sunway Medical Centre has been operational since 1 January 2021.