KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 — The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) and the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MoH) today announced that five hospitals have been identified as Health Technology Hubs under the National Technology and Innovation Sandbox (NTIS) initiative.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that three hospitals in urban areas including Putrajaya Hospital, National Cancer Institute and Tunku Azizah Hospital Kuala Lumpur to focus on technological infrastructure, skilled manpower, integration with current technologies such as the internet and 5G, hardware and the latest technological understanding.
Meanwhile the remaining two are Bera Hospital in Pahang and Rembau Hospital in Negri Sembilan will focus on technology testing such as robots, the internet of medical objects, and 4G or 5G facilities.
He said that these four locations will be known as one-stop centers for the health sector to meet the growing challenges of the health sector increasing in Malaysia.
“Therefore, these hubs are based on the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), where medical equipment and applications form an interconnected ecosystem through computer networks used to improve the management, medication, diagnosis and treatment and monitoring of chronic diseases remotely,” he said.
Also present during the launching, his Mosti counterpart Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba said that the health technology hubs will have access to test sites, funding and regulatory facilitation support in what is an open innovation ecosystem where the public, private sector and government collaborate to accelerate commercialisation rates.
“Indirectly, these hubs can benefit consumers with quality and affordable healthcare. In terms of public health, technology also plays an important role to support the prevention of transmissible diseases by vectors such as insects and pests,” he said.
The NTIS Health Technology Hubs is an initiative of Mosti, with Malaysian Research Accelerator for Technology and Innovation (MRANTI) as the lead Secretariat.
During the press conference, Khairy also said that the Health Ministry is preparing an open tender to have all the government health facilities including hospitals and clinics to go paperless starting with Negri Sembilan.
He said that this will benefit the public health facilities as the abolishment of conventional physical files will expedite the process in government hospitals and clinics nationwide.
“We are going to issue the open tender shortly. We believe that Negri Sembilan is ready and geographically strategic to do it.
“They will upgrade and also deploy new electronic medical records in all public hospitals and clinics in Negri Sembilan. Once successful, it will be expanded to other states,” he said.
