This is part of the efforts to fulfill the vision for the healthcare and biomedical sciences sector under the Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015), IDA's 10 year infocomm masterplan for Singapore.
The iN2015 goal for the healthcare sector is to accelerate the sector's transformation through information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled personalized healthcare delivery system to achieve high quality clinical care, service excellence, cost-effectiveness and strong clinical research.
Chan Yeng Kit, chief executive officer, IDA, said the healthcare sector is not only a potential growth engine for Singapore. It is also an area that concerns all Singaporeans.
"IDA will be working with the Health Ministry and the healthcare providers to realize our iN2015 vision of personalized healthcare delivery to all Singaporeans, powered by infocomm," he said.
Launched in September last year, the CFC has resulted in 10 infocomm solution providers coming on board to co-develop and trial technologies with 12 healthcare institutions.
The healthcare institutions come from the two public clusters, National Healthcare Group (NHG) and Singapore Health Services (SingHealth), Parkway Hospitals and Ang Mo Kio - ThyeHuaKwanHospital, a volunteer welfare organization.
With a total funding of S$3 million (US$1.9 million), the CFC is expected to generate a total spending of S$12 million by the industry.
The pilot projects include the development of innovative solutions to enhance patient care and safety by using wireless measurement of critical vital signs (temperature, blood pressure, ECG and pulse rate) and wireless fall detection devices; and nursing workflow and patient identification automation through RFID technology.
A consortium will be piloting with selected high-risk cardiac patients the use of portable wireless heart monitoring patch, which will allow continuous monitoring of the patients' progress upon their discharge from the hospital via a remote call center manned by heart specialists.
Through the various pilot projects, hospitals can look forward to improved efficiency and reduction of wastage through optimization and effective scheduling of operating theatre resources with the use of ICT.
Commenting on the pilot projects, Lim Bee Kwan, director of IDA's Healthcare & Social Cluster, said, "These ICT solutions and services will further push the frontier of ICT innovations in the healthcare sector. We hope that these ICT innovations will generate more buzz for the healthcare industry, and lead to greater interest from overseas for solutions from our local ICT sector."
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