Telstra Health, a division of Australian incumbent operator Telstra, is expanding its presence in Asia with new implementations of hospital electronic medical record systems in Malaysia and Thailand.
The company's integrated patient care system CloudMed Arcus Hospital Information System (Arcus) is now deployed at Sunway Medical Centre group, Penang Adventist Hospital group and Tung Shin Hospital's Western Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine wings in Malaysia.
Through a distributor, Convergence Systems, Arcus is also being delivered to Khon Kaen University Hospital in Thailand.
Jim Flynt, Managing Director of Telstra Health's CloudMed subsidiary and General Manager of Health Applications, said finding more efficient and effective ways to deliver healthcare would be increasingly important across Asia, with healthcare costs in the region expected to increase from $1.34 trillion in 2013 to $2.21 trillion by 2018.
"Our Arcus product is designed to make it easier for doctors, nurses and pharmacists to treat patients, reducing the amount of time spent on paperwork and freeing up time to spend on what they do best - caring for patients," he said.
Telstra Health said the pain points in Australia such as the need to digitalize and automate complex processes and share the information in real time are the same for healthcare sectors around the world.
At Sunway Group, Arcus will be the first to introduce the use of tablet PCs to doctors, pharmacists and nurses to enable optimal mobility and flexibility when treating patients in both inpatient and outpatient environments.
It will also be an integral tool for the consolidation of medical consultation notes and prescriptions at the end of a patient's visit, according to Healthcare Services' Managing Director Lau Beng Long.
Dr. Wesley Toh See Wei, CEO and President of Penang Adventist Hospital, said the system would allow the hospital to achieve a holistic view of the care activities across the organization.
Meanwhile, the Tung Shin Hospital in Kuala Lumpur sees the need for capturing, digitizing and sharing clinical and administrative information to make healthcare smarter, safer and more efficient.