Telehealth helps spread Singapore medical net
20-Oct-15, The Straits Times
Madam Chan Ah Chan, 79, a hypertension patient, was recently put on a programme at the National University Health System (NUHS) that monitored her erratic blood pressure levels online.
%20ST_Alicia%20Chan.jpg "Telehealth helps spread Singapore medical net (c) ST Alicia Chan")
Image: ST / Alicia Chan
Madam Chan uses a cuff at home to take her own blood pressure reading, which is then relayed through the Internet to the hospital, where the nurses check it.
She is among a growing group of chronically ill patients who are discovering telehealth, a new way of consuming and delivering healthcare by using infocomm technology that is set to grow here.
Associate Professor James Yip, the chief medical information officer at NUHS, started the telehealth programme there last February. Since then, some 1,300 patients with hypertension, diabetes and heart failure have benefited from being monitored online.