Asia-Pacific region is home to some 4.3 billion people or about 60% of the world’s population. While the region has shown remarkable resilience in the face of the pandemic, healthcare systems are at a critical juncture. There is an urgent need to increase efficiency, optimise resources and improve patient outcomes to ensure sustainable and shock-resilient healthcare systems. This requires rethinking and redesigning APAC healthcare systems for future generations.

As the recent conference session at HIMSS21 on 'Why the Time is Right for Personalised Healthcare' APAC experts acknowledged that gradual change is no longer an option to meet the scale and severity of challenges; from the rise in communicable and non-communicable diseases to ageing populations. Patients with chronic and non-communicable conditions who were side-lined during the pandemic are returning to healthcare systems in huge numbers and health systems need to drive efficiencies to deal with this influx. Readiness means continuing to embrace innovation, new technologies, and expedited regulatory pathways.

Innovation should not come at the expense of ensuring accessibility for all. Inequities and disparities - or the gulf between the haves and the have-nots have the potential to widen inequities without the right guardrails in place. Ryan Harper, General Manager of Roche Singapore said, "Every patient in Asia-Pacific, who needs medical innovation should have access to it, no matter where they live, or what income they have." The gains made during COVID-19 need to continue at pace and this requires all ecosystem stakeholders to unite with a renewed collective mindset and purpose.

Action to ensure preparedness through personalised healthcare not only requires innovation but agile policies to address critical challenges around data accessibility.  Dr Charles Alessi, Chief Medical Officer, HIMSS, said "we really are looking to a world where the hospital has very flexible walls, and can actually reach into people's homes using the power of the modalities that we have at our disposal." Policymaking needs to adapt to this new economy to leverage data and emerging technologies and create an environment that allows the use of data to secure the resources needed to deliver personalised healthcare. For too long, regulation has failed to keep up with technological advancements.

Training and education with healthcare partners and regulators can help build collaborative experiences across the ecosystem. Interoperability standards for data sharing can streamline procedures across organisations and advance personalised healthcare. The new healthcare economy needs empowered citizens and to build trust between healthcare systems and users to ensure confidence in sharing their data. Peter Forbes, Group Chief Digital Officer, National University Health System, Singapore said "We need to establish accountability for data – where ownership resides and to enforce accountability around that data."

APAC is at a pivotal moment in healthcare history: an unprecedented convergence of medical knowledge, technology, and data science has the potential to revolutionise patient care. Personalised healthcare is not only about treating and preventing disease for individual patients. Dr Nares Damrongchai, Chief Executive Officer, Genepeutic Bio, highlighted how "the APAC personalised healthcare index as a tool can enable policy making decisions and that every country can learn from each other." Personalised healthcare can deliver efficiencies that will keep healthcare systems sustainable in the face of rising cost  and an ageing population in Asia – ensuring the right treatment, for the right patients, at the right time.

To find out more about FutureProofing Healthcare in the Asia-Pacific region, click here.