The past year saw varying levels of digital transformations going around the health systems in Asia-Pacific. 

It has increasingly become evident that digitalisation – from nationwide networks down to individual hospitals – has become the rule in a post-pandemic world. AI and virtual care models continued to be the craze in healthcare, owing to their clear support for improving clinician productivity and patient outcomes.

How could digital health transformations proceed in the new year? Healthcare IT News sought predictions from and expectations of healthcare providers and technology vendors in APAC for health IT this 2025. 

Which trend in health technology in your country will you see continuing in 2025? How about new trends to expect in the new year?

Dr Tawan Chitchulanon, Chief Medical Officer, PRINCIPAL Healthcare Company, Thailand

Following the global trend and support by the Thai Government, the trend of using AI in healthcare, telemedicine, and digital personal data will [increase] in Thailand. In order to have continuity of care with higher speed and less error, personal data will be more connected and transferred among hospitals, patients, third-party payers, and more. Meanwhile, government hospitals in Thailand have [started installing] telemedicine kiosks to [provide more] healthcare coverage. 

The Principal Healthcare Group has developed a HIS that can be connected to most AI software. For example, we are considering using AI to support physicians in ophthalmology, such as the prediction of retinal diseases, as well as neurology and radiology.

Janine Cox, Operations Director – Health System Integration and Innovation, Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN), Australia

We are hoping to see an improvement in the utilisation of video telehealth within residential aged care homes. We now have 39 Visionflex carts on the ground across our region with USB devices to support more effective virtual care options.

We are also seeing more general practices using the Inca shared health record and care planning tool that connects patients and their care team, as well as GoShare technology for digital literacy, patient literacy, and enrolment into continuous quality improvement initiatives.

Higher utilisation of our Primary Sense tool is expected to be used for patient medication alerts, patients at risk of hospitalisation, and those with missing care interventions, for example, where immunisations are due or for healthcare reviews.

It is likely we will also see an increase in dynamic and interactive population health dashboards for general practices subscribed to NQPHN’s data program. This program helps practices work with patient groups to offer recalls for health assessments. Practices are already utilising Primary Sense as an extraction tool to export data into reports.

NQPHN is working with other Queensland PHNs and Queensland Health to progress data linkage between levels of healthcare. The goal is to follow a patient across their care journey to note opportunities for improvement and identify any barriers or gaps that may emerge from the data collected within healthcare settings.

We expect the recent updates to the MyHealth app for consumers based on the recent changes to health legislation (sharing by default). Easier access to electronic prescriptions will increase the use of the app, providing a much-needed boost to the popularity of My Health Record with consumers and providers. A new consumer campaign driven by the Department of Health and Aged Care will encourage greater uptake by consumers and providers. 

Health Information Exchanges (HIE) seem to be emerging where integration between systems is not available. We look forward to monitoring the progress nationally and identifying where primary care fits within this model of information sharing.

Ling Su Yuen, Chief Architect, Synapxe, Singapore

AI and large language models (LLM) have dominated the tech innovation conversation, particularly in healthcare, and they will remain big trends for 2025. However, I’m particularly excited about the untapped potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) in reshaping healthcare.

Certainly, IoT has been around for some time but it is an evolving field, and its potential in healthcare is vast in areas like real-time monitoring, asset tracking, and supply chain optimisation. Healthcare uses medical devices extensively; these need to be tracked and managed effectively. Imagine the life-saving potential of the integration of healthcare systems with predictive analytics to enhance pandemic preparedness by tracking early indicators across medical facilities, logistics networks, and community health activity.

Looking ahead, another area that we expect to focus more on is empowering tech-savvy users, such as public healthcare clinicians, to develop custom applications that improve their own productivity. We can do so by establishing a more formal approach with "guardrails" that will enable them to contribute to digital transformation while ensuring organisational compliance and cybersecurity. This allows clinicians more space to innovate and directly address operational challenges.

Another anticipated development is the advancement toward frictionless cloud migration. Simplifying the transition of legacy systems to cloud environments will be a critical focus, enabling greater agility, scalability, and accessibility in healthcare operations. 

In addition, we have also been exploring the emerging field of quantum computing, particularly its implications for cryptography. Quantum resilience is a future-critical capability, and we would need to prepare for the obsolescence of certain cryptographic methods to ensure that we stay ahead of technological evolution.

Dr Katharine See, Chief Health Outcomes Officer and Director of Respiratory Medicine, Northern Health, Australia

In 2025, the adoption of AI in healthcare will continue to grow, enabling personalised treatments by analysing large amounts of patient data, including genomic information, to develop tailored care plans. Initially focused on automation and process improvements, these tools will enhance treatment efficacy and patient outcomes while reducing clinician workload. The long-term vision is to integrate decision support AI, empowering clinicians with actionable insights to deliver precision medicine at scale

As we move into 2025, our focus at Northern Health is on leveraging AI to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of care by tailoring and personalising treatments and reducing the administrative burden on our clinicians, enabling them to focus more on patient care. Key initiatives include implementing AI for imaging and pathology interpretation – starting with a pilot in cardiac point-of-care ultrasound, deploying AI scribes to streamline documentation, and integrating AI-powered clinician assistants for real-time patient data summaries turning complex patient data into actionable insights. We believe the adoption of these AI tools will help us deliver the health outcomes that matter most to our patients and community.

Dr Yuichi Tamura, CEO, CardioIntelligence, Japan 

In 2025, I expect the continued evolution of AI-assisted diagnostics and remote health monitoring solutions aimed at supporting Japan’s ageing population and enhancing chronic disease management as a copilot for healthcare providers.

Rustom Lawyer, Augnito, India

I think some of the new trends to expect would be:

Voice-based and ambient AI: Beyond conventional speech recognition, ambient AI technologies will emerge to document clinical encounters automatically. Clinicians can focus on the patient while the AI captures and organises data in the background – minimising administrative burdens and errors.

Insurance-funded models and integrated platforms: As India shifts from out-of-pocket spending toward a more insurance-funded model (supported by a proposed increase in healthcare budget allocation from 1% to 2.5% of GDP by 2025), digital platforms will begin the process of unifying medical records, insurance claims, and reimbursements in a seamless ecosystem. 

Personalised, preventive care: AI and advanced analytics will power highly targeted interventions – ranging from proactive screenings for early disease detection to personalised treatment plans based on a patient’s genomic and clinical data. 

Collaborative AI ecosystems: We will see more public-private partnerships (e.g., government initiatives combined with startup innovation). In India, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission represents how collaborative efforts can drive standards for AI research and validation, fueling healthcare efficiencies and innovations at scale. 

Ben Hope, Head of Operations, Personify Care, Australia

As community demand for healthcare continues to grow across Australia and New Zealand, shortages of frontline clinical staff are driving a sustained focus on digitising clinical workflows, reducing the burden on frontline staff, expanding health system capacity, and enhancing patient access to care. 

We’re seeing the increasing adoption of digital medical record systems and digital patient pathway technologies. These tools enable health systems to capture high-quality, clinically relevant information directly from patients throughout their entire care journey, extending well beyond their hospital stay.

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Responses have been corrected and edited for accuracy and brevity.