Healthcare workers in Singapore to benefit from AI and automation drive

Healthcare workers in Singapore are set to benefit from new technology solutions that will reduce manual work and enhance patient care, as showcased at the Healthcare Academy’s (HCA) largest event to date.

The Healthcare Symposium on 21 November 2024 brought together more than 50 public and private healthcare partners at the Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability.

The event, organised by HCA – a collaboration between the Healthcare Services Employees’ Union (HSEU), NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) and NTUC LearningHub (LHUB) – featured innovative solutions addressing common pain points in the sector, such as manpower shortages, poor work-life balance, and high administrative workload.

Strong track record in healthcare training and placement

Since its inception in 2018, HCA has made significant strides in supporting healthcare workers, providing close to 30,000 training places through LHUB.

The academy has evolved beyond general administrative training to offer advanced courses and nationally recognised Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) certifications focused on clinical skills and healthcare-specific practices.

NTUC’s e2i has also played a crucial role in job placement, successfully placing over 8,000 local jobseekers into healthcare positions since 2020.

At the symposium’s career fair, jobseekers had access to more than 800 job vacancies across 65 positions, with the opportunity to try out patient care tasks at an experiential showcase.

Strategic partnerships to drive healthcare innovation

The event marked two significant partnerships.

HCA signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the National Healthcare Group (NHG) to develop training programmes in AI, sustainability, and workplace safety for over 24,000 healthcare workers.

Through NHG’s Centre for Healthcare Innovation, the partnership aims to generate greater interest in transformation among healthcare workers through co-developed learning content and joint certification.

“The partnership inked today with the National Healthcare Group would advance Healthcare Academy’s core objective of helping healthcare workers adapt to changes, learn skills and transition into emerging jobs seamlessly.

“Artificial intelligence, sustainability, and workplace safety and health are all key areas that impact the nature and longevity of our healthcare workforce,” said NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng.

A separate MOU between NTUC, HSEU, and ALPS Pte Ltd was also signed to support business transformation and sustainability efforts in the healthcare supply chain by forming Company Training Committees (CTCs).

Technology solutions show promising results

Five key technologies were showcased at the event, each addressing specific challenges in the healthcare sector.

PreSAGE, a fall prevention technology developed by CoNEX Healthcare, has demonstrated significant improvements in patient safety at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), achieving a 42 per cent reduction in falls while saving 300 minutes of nursing time daily.

The system uses thermography sensors and artificial intelligence to enable continuous, non-intrusive monitoring of patients.

BIPO’s Flexible Scheduling system has successfully granted 93 per cent of critical scheduling requests from nurses across 40 wards at TTSH, promoting better work-life balance for healthcare workers.

The system uses AI and automation features to optimise workforce management while meeting operational needs.

Other innovative solutions include a Robot Pharmacy system by iApps Health Group that automates medication dispensing to reduce human error, and a Smart Inventory Management system implemented at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) that has significantly reduced the time nurses spend on inventory management by automating stock monitoring and alerts for low or expiring items.

The showcase also featured themove.ai, an AI-assisted rehabilitation solution that provides real-time guidance and feedback to patients while allowing physiotherapists to focus on diagnosis and treatment planning.

These technological advances are expected to significantly reduce healthcare workers’ time on manual tasks, allowing them to focus more on direct patient care and higher-value clinical work.

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