What’s Next 2016: And what are hospitals doing about digital transformation?

By Karamjit Singh July 12, 2016

Former CIO now leads initiative to leverage on technology for innovation, growth
Sees healthcare going through an evolution as we enter second Machine Age

What’s Next 2016: And what are hospitals doing about digital transformation?

WITH 29 hospitals across four countries, encompassing 2,900 beds, 1,100 medical consultants, 12,500 employees and treating 2.5 million outpatients in 2015, KPJ Healthcare Bhd is one of the largest hospital groups in South-East Asia.

One of its six strategic goals is to leverage on technology for innovation and growth, and the man tasked with this responsibility is Dr Mubbashir Iftikhar (pic above), who was its chief information officer for five years before taking on his current role as head of digital transformation.

He is the latest business leader from a brick-and-mortar company to join Digital News Asia’s What’s Next conference on July 28, where he will be part of a three-person panel discussion on Big Data & Analytics’ Dark Secret.

He will be joining Ivan Teh, founder and managing director of Fusionex International Plc, a UK-listed big data and analytics firm; and CK Koay, head of customer management, Consumer Business, Maxis Bhd.

In the following Q&A, Dr Mubbashir shares some insights on KPJ’s major digital transformation drive.

DNA: What was the imperative that led to KPJ embarking on its digital transformation journey?

Dr Mubbashir: In an evolving world of changing dynamics, from the third industrial revolution of the Internet to the fourth industrial revolution of cognitive computing and robotics, some predict we are entering into the second Machine Age.

Healthcare is also going through an evolution in this changing dynamics of life, business, the Internet, machine and cognition.

When we view it from a healthcare perspective, we clearly see that the increase in data [will] have a huge impact on outcomes in healthcare.

Either through the diagnostics or therapeutics involved, and to ensure an optimum level of healthcare, it is increasingly visible that we need to digitise and transform our systems and processes to continue improving.

DNA: Is your transformation journey technology-led or business/customer-led?

Dr Mubbashir: In the complexity of business and more over healthcare, it is very hard to really demarcate what transformation strategy we are adopting. What we are dealing with essentially is an evolution, and fast-paced changing dynamics, where business processes are set in line with highly knowledgeable consumers.

Technological advancements are the backbone of these dynamics that are shaping our strategy.

DNA: What role will data and analytics play in the KPJ of the future once your transformation is complete?

Dr Mubbashir: Certainly data will play a key and fundamental role in making all types of clinical and business decisions, but it’s very hard to really give some idea of the form and shape KPJ Healthcare will acquire with its increasing transformation.

But what we are sure of is that we will certainly remain relevant in the context of evolution based on the ‘Nexus of Forces’ – that is, social, mobile, cloud and data/ analytics.

Developing into an organisation which is deeply concentrated on providing the best healthcare options to its consumers through changes shaped by technological advancements, whether through already available data or the generation of new data – that’s our challenge. That is our goal.

What’s Next

You can hear more from Dr Mubbashir and other speakers at What’s Next: The Business Impact of Disruptive Technology on July 28 at the Sime Darby Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

Register directly at http://digitalnewsasia.com/whats-next-2016 or call Suraini Sarip at 6013 295-3498 for details.

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