Telstra Health creates solutions for key challenges in the healthcare sector by integrating leading eHealth solutions, such as the CloudMed Arcus Hospital Information System (Arcus), which is an integrated patient care system that provides hospital networks spreading over multiple locations with a single medical record.
Implementation of Arcus has commenced at Sunway Medical Centre group, Penang Adventist Hospital group and Tung Shin Hospital's Western Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine wings in Malaysia. In addition, through a distributor, Convergence Systems, Arcus is being delivered to Khon Kaen University Hospital in Thailand.
Jim Flynt, Managing Director of Telstra Health's CloudMed subsidiary and General Manager of Health Applications, said finding more efficient and effective ways to deliver healthcare would be increasingly important across Asia, with healthcare costs in the region expected to increase from US$1.34 trillion in 2013 to US$2.21 trillion by 2018, due to growing populations and chronic illnesses becoming more common.
"Our Arcus product is designed to make it easier for doctors, nurses and pharmacists to treat patients, reducing the amount of time spent on paperwork and freeing up time to spend on what they do best - caring for patients," said Mr Flynt.
"The system is highly flexible and can support multiple languages including English, Thai and Mandarin across multiple sites while it will also be able to record both western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine data in the future.
"While Australia remains our primary focus, the expansion into Asia marks an important milestone in the continued development of Telstra Health as we become a global health business. Many of the pain points in Australia - such as the need to digitalise and automate complex processes and share information in real time - are the same for healthcare sectors around the world.
"CloudMed, a wholly owned business of Telstra Health, acquired the assets of Indian based health software developer IdeaObject last December. Their Cloud Hospital Information System was already used by more than 250 hospitals across Asia. We've been able to build on this with these contract wins and are looking for growth in the region from our offices in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Chennai," Mr Flynt said.
Sunway Group Healthcare Services' Managing Director, Mr. Lau Beng Long said, "Arcus will be the first to introduce the use of tablet PCs to doctors, pharmacists and nurses to enable optimal mobility and flexibility when treating patients in both inpatient and outpatient environments. It will also be an integral tool for the consolidation of medical consultation notes and prescriptions at the end of a patient's visit."
Dr Wesley Toh See Wei, CEO and President of Penang Adventist Hospital, said "This system means any future hospitals in our pipeline can easily be brought online and become part of our healthcare ecosystem, be it on premise or in a hybrid setting, allowing us to achieve a holistic view of the care activities across the organization," said Dr Wesley.
Mr. Chung King Keong, the Administrator of Tung Shin Hospital in Kuala Lumpur said, "We embrace Telstra Health's vision of creating a connected healthcare system. Capturing, digitising and sharing clinical and administrative information can make healthcare smarter, safer and more efficient," said Mr Chung.
Telstra Health previously acquired UK based health analytics firm Dr Foster in March, currently with customers in 10 countries including the UK, the US, Italy and Spain.
About Telstra Health
Telstra Health is a provider of eHealth solutions with the ambition to create a better health system for patients, providers and health insurers. Telstra Health aims to be the partner of choice and is working with medical experts, the health sector, government, funders as well as the world's best and most innovative eHealth companies to build a future where eHealth solutions are integrated together to create a brilliantly different health care system. Telstra Health is a business division of Telstra Corporation, Australia's leading telecommunications company. For more information visit www.telstra.com/health
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