THE guest-of-honour, Minister of State (MOS) Chee Hong Tat, spoke of how Singapore's public healthcare has benefitted from embracing productive construction technologies which have enabled the development of healthcare facilities to be sped up, while retaining quality and managing costs. This, in turn, has led to patients having more accessible care.
Speaking at the fifth edition of Healthcare Infrastructure Technology & Engineering Conference (HI.TEC), he said: "This year, we want to build on these earlier discussions to innovate in the areas of healthcare infrastructure design and construction, so that our healthcare facilities can support productivity enhancement efforts and improve patient experience."
By the time the two-day event, which had Smart Healthcare Infrastructure For All Ages as its theme, drew to a close on 8 March, the 300-plus delegates at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre had only high praise for HI.TEC 2017.
Mr Khoo Sze Boon, Executive Director and Head of Operations of Arcadis Design & Consultancy, said: "My biggest takeaway is learning new things from the technological perspective, understanding some of the practices from other countries and, of course, meeting new friends."
Ms Jessica Wilding, General Manager of ID/Lab, shared: "The HI.TEC experience has been great and I've learnt so much. I've enjoyed all the different speakers."
Mr David Morgareidge, Predictive Analytics Director at Page Southerland Page, Inc., was one of the 16 speakers at HI.TEC 2017 and he said: "This is my first year at HI.TEC. The presentations have been excellent, and the focus of the Minister was very inspiring to me. My work in simulation seems to be a very good fit with every one of the presentations."
This year's event had a couple of new elements. For the first time, MOHH teamed up with an external partner: The Australian Government and the Australia Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade). Another first was the Innoshow, a showcase of smart technology solutions from companies across the Asia Pacific.
Mr Chee, who is MOS at the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Communications and Information, spent quite some time interacting with exhibitors at the Innoshow, which included automated cleaning and disinfection systems, talking robots and predictive tools.
In the spirit of learning and collaboration, thought-provoking presentations on how to leverage smart technologies to promote greater efficiencies for future healthcare design, construction and engineering delivery followed. Participants also took the opportunity to pose questions during the three robust panel discussions.
On the afternoon of the second day, some delegates also had the opportunity to visit Ng Teng Fong Hospital and Yishun Community Hospitals as part of the learning journeys organised by MOHH.
