01 Nov 2011
By Thava Rani
Waiting to see the doctor, the patient faced his queue slip and the electronic queue number display on the wall. Just then, a clever idea popped into his head - one that would spawn a new business for Mr Yasuo Yokoi.
“Waiting time can be converted to learning time,” said the 59-year-old, who began to think about how unproductive waiting time can be put to good use. “A healthful entertainment while waiting,” he thought. The concept was built in his mind.
Mr Yokoi is the man behind Wellness TV Network, a network dedicated to educating and entertaining patients in the waiting area. With a quarter of a century experience in advertising and another 11 years in broadcast media, Mr Yosoi certainly had the industry knowledge to set up a media company. But for his idea to kick off, he had to convince healthcare group SingHealth to agree to install a TV network and develop medical content together by sharing health and medical information in bite-sized easy-to-understand format.
“I felt a video would be better received than printed material. And I knew mini-clips were the way to go. Many short clips are better to capture different interest of different people rather than showing a long one clip,” said Mr Yokoi.
That was in 2008. Today, his partnership with SingHealth is stronger than ever. Following the first screen installed at Singapore National Eye Centre in March 2010, Mr Yokoi has added more than 200 television and media player sets at other SingHealth institutions such as National Heart Centre, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and SingHealth Polyclinics. Tailor-made healthcare programmes are piped into the screens to entertain and educate patients in the waiting area.
More recently, Wellness TV made its debut at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and its programmes can now be viewed at the Specialist Outpatient Clinics in Block 3 and the Obstetrics and Gynaecology clinics at Block 5, and will be progressively extended to other clinics.
On top of its original video clips, Wellness TV has produced more than 100 SingHealth clips with input from its doctors and other staff. The video library is growing, with more than 200 clips to date, ranging from more serious medical issues such as cancer treatment to lighter, general tips for a healthy lifestyle, food and diet, exercise, hobbies, beauty and even cooking programmes.
A patient waiting to be seen at SGH’s Clinic G, Ms Choy Oi Lin, said: “I find the programmes educational and informative. Before Wellness TV, the clinic used to show the news and some sitcoms, but I find these more useful.”
“I’m passionate about the concept of Wellness TV. My father’s mission to me was to contribute to Singapore society. That’s what keeps me going and this is my life’s work,” Mr Yokoi said.
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