• 71% of healthcare leaders in APAC reported delays in care due to staff shortages.
• 93% reported that they experienced at least 1 data integration challenge but recognize the potential of bringing data from different sources together to improve efficiency and care. 
• AI increasingly utilized for clinical decision support, with 62% planning to invest in generative AI within the next three years, higher than global (56%).

Royal Philips  a global leader in health technology, released the Asia Pacific (APAC) findings of its Future Health Index (FHI) 2024 report: Better care for more people. The ninth edition of the report, which surveyed nearly 3,000 healthcare leaders in 14 countries, including Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore, shows that healthcare leaders are focusing on improving operational efficiencies through workflow prioritization, data integration, and AI-enabled innovation to improve patient care impacted by workforce shortages, financial challenges, and growing demand.

"While long wait times and staff shortages are making it difficult for people to get the care they need, when they need, we are also observing our healthcare leaders taking bold and thoughtful changes to deliver better patient care for more people," says Dr Mark Burby, Vice President of Health Systems for Philips APAC. "They are determined to overcome data integration challenges to fully uncover its utmost potential and are excited to embrace the next level of AI implementation for critical decision making and improved efficiencies."  

Staff shortages and financial challenges are taking a toll on patient care in APAC

71% of healthcare leaders in APAC are concerned about staff shortages resulting in delays in care for patients. Furthermore, 92% of healthcare leaders in APAC highlight that financial challenges are impacting their organization's ability to provide timely, high quality-care, with 59% of them currently improving operational efficiency at their organization as a financial strategy. Other countries are doing the same, including Singapore (64%), Indonesia (57%), and Australia (56%).

To deal with the high volume of patients without compromising on quality, workflow prioritization is seen as the biggest opportunity for automation to improve productivity and ease staff shortages worldwide. In APAC, close to half (45%) have already implemented workflow optimization.

High hopes in the potential of data integration to improve efficiency and care

Healthcare leaders in APAC see a wide range of opportunities to improve patient care by bringing data from different sources together in a meaningful way, helping them to build a cohesive patient story. They believe that the benefits from having data-driven insights include optimizing treatment plans/care pathways (36%), identifying evidence-based best practices (36%), forecasting and managing patient demand (36%), predicting and reducing adverse patient events (33%), reducing hospital readmissions (33%), and reducing diagnostic and elective care procedure waiting lists (31%).

However, 93% of healthcare leaders in APAC reported that they experienced at least one data integration challenge. These challenges affect their ability to provide timely and high-quality care, and include an increased risk of errors, reduced patient safety and/or quality of care (36%), limited coordination between care providers/departments (33%), increased operational costs due to inefficiencies (32%), spending time accessing/integrating data resulting in less time caring for patients (31%), and missed opportunities for preventive care or early intervention (31%).

To fully uncover the benefits of data integration, 67% of healthcare leaders in APAC highlighted the importance of quality data. They identified improved accuracy of data (36%), improved data security/privacy (34%), full patient access to their own health data (34%), and improved interoperability between platforms/healthcare settings (31%) as areas to be changed when handling data.

AI increasingly utilized for clinical decision support, with growing interest to advance to generative AI

In APAC, successful adoption in AI is observed with healthcare leaders increasingly embracing AI for clinical decision support. The findings show how they have implemented and are planning to implement AI for clinical decision support in the next three years across different areas of care including preventive care (91%), medication management (90%), in-hospital patient monitoring (89%), treatment planning (89%), remote patient monitoring (87%), in clinical command centers (83%), radiology (79%), and pathology (79%).

Looking towards the next step in AI, generative AI adoption is taking off in APAC with healthcare leaders recognizing the benefits of AI algorithms that can be used to produce content such as text, images, or data, in response to inputted prompts. This could benefit patient care by unlocking new efficiencies and insights from patient data. In APAC, 36% of healthcare leaders are currently investing in generative AI technologies. 62% are planning to invest in these technologies in the next three years, consistent with interest in Indonesia (74%), Singapore (64%), and Australia (49%). Overall, APAC's interest in generative AI is ahead of global healthcare leaders currently investing (29%) and planning to invest in the next three years (56%).

While there is widespread excitement about the possibilities of AI in healthcare, 95% of healthcare leaders in APAC are concerned about data bias in AI applications widening disparities in health outcomes. There is a shared recognition that AI needs to be implemented in a responsible way to avoid unintended consequences. Making AI more transparent and interpretable for healthcare professionals (45%), ensuring staff diversity in data and AI (43%), continuous training and education in AI (40%), and implementing policies for the ethical use of data and AI (39%) were listed as strategies to mitigate the risk of data bias. This can only be achieved through cross-sector collaboration and coalition-building.

"The future of delivering better care for more people is attainable through seamless integration of data and smart application of AI in clinical care to improve workflow and productivity for healthcare providers. At Philips, we are leveraging AI and informatics capabilities and harnessing the power of partnerships to innovate across imaging, interventional and monitoring to stay ahead of these needs," added Dr Burby.

Philips has been working with its partners in APAC on new business models and engaging in long-term strategic partnerships to innovate care delivery. Being aware that services, upgrades, sustainable innovations, and practices as well as training and education are key to the long-term success of digital transformation, Philips offers integrated and comprehensive suites of systems, smart devices, software, and services, to address the specific pain points faced by healthcare providers and ultimately help unleash the full possibilities of digital transformation.