BUMRUNGRAD International Hospital aims to use innovation to become a world-class holistic healthcare facility within the next five years.

With healthcare businesses now impacted by disruptive technology, being reactive is insufficient in ensuring patient health and there is a need to offer preventive services and make predictions, the hospital’s chief say.

To achieve the goal of becoming a world-class holistic healthcare facility, Bumrungrad International Hospital will need to invest in a lot of innovative technology. The hospital has partnered with Biotia, a provider of next-generation sequencing technology, which since last year has piloted artificial intelligence (AI) for its sequencing-based technology for the detection of pathogens and combating drug resistance. It has also partnered with IBM Watson, since 2017, for personalised medical oncology treatments for cancer patients.

Artirat Charukitpipat, chief executive officer for Bumrungrad, says the hospital has invested in technologies and innovations, including implementing Zebra AI in its 25 radiation stations, in which AI works with a CT scan to examine the upper body. The scan can simultaneously detect four diseases – a fatty liver, emphysema, bone fractures and intracranial bleeding. It is now in a trial period and will soon launch officially.

“Patient safety is a core value and is the DNA of Bumrungrad International Hospital. Our core values include agility, innovation and caring,” said Artirat.

Moreover, the hospital aims to implement operational excellence. For example, with around 50 per cent of all patients being foreigners, the hospital has implemented a remote tele-medicine system that provides services on-site through a mobile device.

The system is under trial at some of the hospital’s stations, as it seeks to reduce waiting times for patients. The hospital has also partnered with iDoctor to improve tele-medicine and tele-healthcare services as it seeks to enable patients to easily access the hospital. An April launch of the system will focus on the emergency department, with the technology eventually connecting Bumrungrad doctors to patient services at almost 40 representative offices in many countries.

Its new hospital information system (HIS) implemented in March 2018 has helped increase patient safety, allowing easier connection to hospital systems as well as to patients’ wearable devices. The aim is to facilitate patients being able to take care of themselves home while remaining connected with the hospital.

By the first half of 2020, Bumrungrad will invest over Bt100 million in a new robotics system for the OPD centre for fully automated packaging of patient medicines.

The hospital serves around 3,000 outpatients daily, along with almost 400 in-patients.

To spur the adoption of innovations at the hospital, the Bumrungrad Academy trains its 4,000 staff in new innovation technology through a virtual training system. With staff increasingly composed of the Generation Z demographic, the hospital is adjusting its culture and environment to ignite people’s passion and work satisfaction.

It has invested Bt20 million in a new training system aimed to

facilitate staff participation and mutual communication, and has a turnover rate of around 9 per cent.

It also offers a global conference workshop for doctors, such as an emergency room (ER) lab workshop on a knowledge-sharing platform, as it aims for status as a world-class hospital.

To now transform the hospital into a world-class holistic healthcare and continuum healthcare facility, it needs to change the mindset and attitudes of all 4,000 staff, both clinical and non-clinical staff, along with the 1,300 part-time doctors and full-time doctors, nurses and dentists. It is now around 70 per cent of the way through the transformation journey.

Focus on quality

Kornprom Saengaram, chief executive officer and patient safety consultant for Bumrungrad International Hospital, says the facility has always focused on quality and safety.

Technological innovation such as AI is intended to support doctors so they can offer precision healthcare service, and is not meant to replace doctors, said Kornprom. The hospital years ago implemented a safety management system (SMS) that consists of four elements – safety policy, safety risk management, safety assurance and safety promotion.

Bumrungrad has also implemented a crew resource management (CRM) system, for those staff with non-technical skills. To become a world-class hospital, the most important key performance indicator (KPI) is to integrate the wellness system, the VitalLife Wellness Centre, and the hospital system as seamlessly as possible, he said.

However, another KPI is to at the same time reduce medical errors, said Kornprom. Medical errors in the US have caused around 250,000 deaths each year, and is the third leading cause of death in the country.

Thai CVCs are playing an active role in accelerating the startup ecosystem in Thailand. Mainly they are focused on inviting in startups who develop services/solutions in line with the corporate’s strategic directions. CVCs provide not only funds, but also importantly offer strategic planning, marketing and business networking.

InVent by Intouch Holdings is one corporate committed to helping accelerate Thai startups.

Narongpon Boonsongpaisan, head of InVent, Intouch Holdings Plc, said that this year the company has a Bt200 million budget to invest in startups in areas that the company is focused on, including digital life, digital corporate, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligent (AI), blockchain and Big Data, as well as 5G related startups.

In the second quarter of 2019, it will invest in two or three startups, while it now has five startups in the pipeline for investing.

This year, it will mainly invest in the seeding stage, with an emphasis on overseas startups. In the past, it has focused its investments in the growth stage of startups with series A funding.

He said there are an increasing number of Thai startups, with around 1,000 now active. But only 10 per cent of these can secure funding between seed and series A.

“Thai startups are different from global startups – they need more time to scale and to secure fundraising. This is because Thailand is not a large market when compared to Indonesia. Moreover, Thai startups are more localised, and do not perform as well when scaled to the regional market when compared to Singapore.

Up to now, he said, InVent has invested a total Bt500 million in 17 startups. They are together creating total revenue of Bt1.2 billion, with about half of them showing profit.

“We do not focus on investing in venture capital funds. Since we have the Singtel network available in many countries around the world, we can leverage this network to access potential startups anywhere in the world,” said Narongpon.

He added that the role of a CVC is to help create strategic value for CVC owners, while also helping to expand the business and market for startups as well as supporting the back-office work, especially legal and accounting.

“We also help review business plans and offer business connections for startups. It is not just about money,” said Narongpon.

Jeerawat Kulsapudom, head of Ecosytem Siri Ventures, said the company is focused this year on investing in mature startups with pre-series A investing.

In 2019, it will launch the first private-property tech sandbox called SIRI VENTURES Private PropTech Sandbox. It will allows startups to do proof of concept, as well as then test and trial products and services.

“We have property projects nationwide with almost 100,000 customers that can turn to the sandbox for startups to trial and experience their services,” said Jeerawat.

This year it will focus its investing in four areas – property, construction, health and well being, and smart living.

Siri Ventures has Bt1.5 billion to spread out over three years. In 2018, it invested in eight startups, two of which are Thai, including seed and pre-series A.

It has also invested in China by partnering with China Renaissance through investing in the Hua Xingg Fund. For 2019, it focuses on pre-series A and series A investment in growth startups. It has prepared a Bt600 budget for investment.

Smart tech and green energy

Arweemas Sirisaengtaksin, venture builder, PTT ExpresSo (PTT Innovation Lab), said this year’s focus is to invest in smart technology and green energy startups, along with blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as energy for mobility such as services around electric vehicles, and EV charging and EV-enabling platforms.

“In the last three years after starting EspresSo, we have tried small projects that were retail related, and are now more focused on clean technology that creates an impact for the country as well as regional and global problems, especially environmental problems. If we can turn to clean energy, it will be a big contribution to the country,” said Arwemas.

ExpresSo invests its venture capital in startups with series A and up, along with sustainability funds and new technologies. Its venture platform aims to support the startup ecosystem.

“We are looking for tech partners and startups to join solutions, for new business according to PTT’s strategy,” said Arweemas.

It has set budgets of US$450 million (Bt14.11 billion) for investing in startups and funds. Through the last three years, it has invested in six funds and two Thai startups, Bania and SG Robotic.

Facebook, Line and Google, which owns YouTube, were among the participants in the Multi-Stakeholder Regional Workshop on Social Media.

More than 2.4 billion people use social media, and about half of them live in the Asia Pacific region.

Thailand’s lawmakers are considering six bills related to digital technology. Two of the more controversial bills, the Cybersecurity Bill and the Personal Data Protection Bill, are in the second and third readings at the National Legislative Assembly.

The workshop’s organisers said the gathering had devised the best practice for helping people use social media under good governance principles.

Sheen Handoo, public policy manager for APAC at Facebook, said Facebook has 2.3 billion users and that the company has determined community standards and invested in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning as well as employing 30,000 people to monitor content for inappropriate information. They are working to uphold community standards in nine categories, such as terrorism, child safety, and hate speech, Handoo said.

Jake Lucchi, head of content and AI, public policy, for Google Asia Pacific, said that Google has implemented community standards with a focus on freedom of expression with regulation. Every minute, 400 minutes of videos are uploaded to YouTube.

By late last year, Google had removed 7.8 million video clips that violated community standards. Some 75 per cent of them were removed before they were watched. They made up 1 per cent of all videos on YouTube.

Taimu Negishi, public policy strategist at Line Corporation, said the platform was focusing on privacy. Every message sent is encrypted and kept in the company’s system in Japan.

Key market

Thailand is the second largest market for Line. The country has 50 million mobile Internet users, and 44 million of them use Line. Each user spends an average of 63 minutes a day on the platform.

Line has collaborated with educational institutions to train students and others in media literacy since 2014.

This year, IT spending in Thailand is estimated to come in at Bt452 billion. The hardware market will lead the way with spending of Bt308 billion, followed by IT services on Bt100 billion and software Bt43.8 billion.

Prapussorn Pechkaew, a senior market analyst at IDC Thailand, said hardware would account for 66.98 per cent of spending, followed by IT serves with 23 per cent and software 10.02 per cent.

The IT market growth this year is estimated to increase 6.53 per cent compared with last year. This year, IT services are forecast to have the highest growth in spending at 7.99 per cent, followed by software on 7.6 per cent, and hardware at Bt5.92 per cent, compared with last year.

Prapussorn said the factors that will drive IT spending are the uptake of new technologies by enterprises, as they boost their capabilities in cloud computing, cyber security, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). The government’s Thailand 4.0 scheme is also playing a role.

The top 10 technologies that will spur market growth over the next three years “are those relating to the digital economy, digital native, expansion to the edge, AppDev revolution, new developed class, digital innovation and growth through specialisation, AI the new UI (user interface), expanding/scaling trust and consolidation and multi-cloud”, Prapussorn said.

For the digital economy, by 2022, over 61 per cent of Thailand’s GDP will be digitalised, with growth in every industry driven by digitally enhanced offerings, operations, and relationships. This trend will see US$72 billion spent on IT-related purchases from 2019 to 2022.

With the digital-native IT, by 2022 around 60 per cent of Thailand’s IT spending will be on third platform technologies, as over 30 per cent of all enterprises are building digital-native IT environments to thrive in the digital economy.

Under expand to the edge, by 2022, Thailand’s organisations will increase their cloud deployments, including those for edge computing, and 25 per cent of endpoint devices and systems will execute AI algorithms.

By 2022, the AppDev revolution will account for around 70 per cent of Thailand’s new apps and will feature micro-services architecture that will improve the ability to design, debug, update and leverage RTF codes. As well, around 25 per cent of all production apps will be cloud-native.

The new developer class is a new class of professional developers producing code without custom scripting. This will expand the developer population by 20 per cent in Thailand, accelerating the digital transformation by 2024

Regarding the explosion in digital innovation, IDC says that from 2018 to 2023 4 million new logical apps will be created in Thailand. They will benefit from new tools and platforms.

By 2022, growth through specialisation will see around 15 per cent of public cloud computing based on non-x86 processors (including quantum) in Thailand. By that year, organisations will spend more on vertical software as a service (SaaS) apps than horizontal apps.

Under AI the new UI, by 2024 AI-enabled user interfaces and process automation will replace one-third of today’s screen-based apps in Thailand. By 2022, around 20 per cent of enterprises will use conversational speech tech for customer engagement.

In the area of expanding and scaling trust, by 2023 around 25 per cent of servers will encrypt data at rest and in motion in Thailand and over 20 per cent of security alerts will be handled by AI-powered automation and 3.5 million people will have blockchain-based digital identities.

By 2022 the top-four cloud mega-platforms will host 80 per cent of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) deployments in Thailand. By 2023, around 70 per cent of Thailand’s top 100 organisations will mitigate look-in through multi-cloud, hybrid technologies and tools.

“We foresee a steady growth in the adoption of emerging technologies in the country mainly because Thailand is working to improve its economic growth by shifting its economy from an industry-driven country to one that is driven by high-tech innovations,” said Prapussorn.