From Smart Hospitals to Smart Health Systems: Revolutionising patient care with innovation

Professor Son Meong Hi speaks about how digital transformation can help healthcare systems work better, reduce workforce burden, and enable new models of care. She also explores the challenges of integrating AI into real clinical environments, and why meaningful transformation requires collaboration between technologists, clinicians, and patients.

In this  SGH Hospital of the Future Podcast, our hosts Associate Professor Goh Su-Yen and Dr Chanda Kendra Ho, speak with Professor Son Meong Hi, Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO), and Associate Director of the Center for Digital and Data Innovation at Samsung Medical Center (SMC), the first Korean to serve on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). HIMSS is a U.S. nonprofit organisation that promotes the integration of information technology into the healthcare environment to streamline healthcare systems, improve patient safety, and enhance quality of care.

In January 2024, SMC became the first healthcare provider worldwide to achieve HIMSS Quadruple Stage 7 validation. Professor Son explains how SMC achieved Stage 7, the highest level, in four of the six domains certified by HIMSS and what Singapore General Hospital can learn from SMC, a 5G-enabled world-class smart hospital. This is the highest level of digital maturity across four key areas: Infrastructure Adoption Model (INFRAM), Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM), Digital Imaging Adoption Model (DIAM), and Adoption Model for Analytics Maturity (AMAM). SMC also been recognised for its world-class digital maturity, scoring 400 out of 400 on the Digital Health Indicator (DHI).

For SMC, HIMSS validation was not only external recognition of digital maturity. It was also an internal learning journey. Through the assessment process, many professional groups across the SMC gained a better understanding of their own workflows, the roles of other teams, and the need for technology to connect people, processes, data, and decisions. In this sense, the HIMSS maturity assessment helped strengthen collaboration, shared understanding, and workforce ownership.

In her role as CMIO, and Associate Director of the Center for Digital and Data Innovation at SMC, she connects clinical care, hospital operations, data, technology, and people to help translate real clinical problems into digital strategies that can create value in practice.

Professor Son frames SMC’s digital transformation journey around three areas. First, digital transformation can help us do existing work better — improving safety, efficiency, and coordination. Examples include Barcode Point-of-Care medication administration for closed-loop medication safety, and Digital Optimization for Coordinated Care (DOCC), which helps visualise, predict, and coordinate hospital operations such as patient flow, diagnostic demand, bed utilisation, and resource allocation.

Second, technology can take over repetitive work and reduce non-clinical burden. One example is robotic logistics automation with smart carts. At SMC, smart carts pre-loaded with ward-specific supplies are delivered directly to inpatient wards. This model is currently applied to approximately 60% of inpatient wards, with the goal of expanding to around 90% by the end of 2026. By automating supply delivery and inventory management, the system has reduced the time each nurse spends per shift on checking stock, ordering supplies, and handing over inventory information by more than 30 minutes.

Third, digital transformation can enable new forms of care that were previously difficult to provide. In paediatric care, SMC explored social robots and AI-based communication agents to support communication, education, emotional comfort, and child-friendly hospital experiences. Another example is PRISM, a platform that collects patient-reported outcomes and survey information before or between hospital visits. PRISM is currently used across approximately 35 clinical departments at SMC, sending an average of around 18,000 surveys per week, with a response rate of approximately 85%. These efforts help bring patients’ voices and real-world data into clinical care.

We also learn about the sustained digital transformation of Korean healthcare, and how Korean healthcare contributes to global healthcare innovation through international cooperation from Professor Son. Her latest visit to Singapore is meaningful to her as she recognises Korea and Singapore face shared healthcare challenges, including ageing populations, increasing demand, workforce burden, high patient expectations, and the need to move from hospital-centred care toward more connected health systems. This visit is an opportunity to share SMC’s experience and learn from peer institutions such as SGH.

Professor Son touches on her personal journey and how her experience as a paediatrician, caring for children and families in real clinical settings, led her to become interested in digital health and smart hospitals. For her, healthcare is not only about diagnosis and treatment. It is also about communication, coordination, safety, waiting time, emotional support, and the overall experience of patients, families, and healthcare professionals.

Looking ahead, Professor Son discusses AI transformation as the next important layer in the journey from smart hospitals to smart health systems. She sees AI development and implementation in three stages: model performance, process integration, and real-world adoption with measurable impact. Many AI enterprises are strong in the first stage - building high-performing models. However, once an AI model enters a hospital, the first major hurdle is integration into complex clinical and operational processes. The next and even more difficult challenge is adoption by real users in real care environments.

For AI to create meaningful impact, it must be designed from the beginning with all three stages in mind. This requires listening to users’ voices, understanding real clinical and operational workflows, and maintaining close dialogue between technology companies, research teams, and healthcare domain experts. In a smart hospital, there are many different domain experts including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, administrators, IT teams. Some are very familiar with technology, while others may feel distant from it. Successful digital transformation must be understandable, usable, and meaningful for all stakeholders.

Professor Son recognises that no single hospital has all the answers. As we move from smart hospitals to smart health systems, we are entering a future that no one has fully experienced before. That is why exchanging experiences with peer institutions such as SGH is so important. We need to learn from one another, support one another, and build the future of healthcare together.

Professor Son Meong Hi, Dr Chanda Kendra Ho and Associate Professor Goh Su-Yen in the SGH Studio

About Professor Son Meong Hi
Professor Son Meong Hi is a Paediatrician specialising in Hemato-oncology and Emergency Medicine at Samsung Medical Center (SMC). Professor Son is a prominent figure in health informatics and paediatric medicine, known for driving digital transformation within the hospital. She focuses on integrating technology to improve patient care and hospital efficiency, including:
-  Digital Transformation: Advocating for the role of people in technology adoption and using digital tools to reduce patient waiting times.
-   Innovation: Researching and implementing advanced technologies such as AI, Mixed Reality (MR), and haptic feedback for medical training and safety.
-  Smart Healthcare: Envisioning next-generation hospitals that use digital tools to fill infrastructure gaps and maintain innovation momentum.

About SGH Hospital of the Future Podcast Hosts

Associate Professor Goh Su-Yen is Senior Consultant,  Endocrinology at Singapore General Hospital (SGH), Head and Senior Consultant, SingHealth Duke-NUS Diabetes Centre, and Group Director, Innovation and Transformation, SingHealth, with an interest in innovation and transformation. 

Dr Chanda Kendra Ho is currently a Senior Consultant, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at SGH. Her clinical area of expertise is in transplant hepatology. Dr Ho completed her undergraduate studies at Harvard University. After medical school at the University of Tennessee, she was trained at Washington University in St. Louis/Barnes Jewish Hospital for internal medicine residency. She then completed both her gastroenterology and transplant hepatology fellowships at the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to joining SGH, Dr Ho was Medical Director for Clinical Systems and Innovation at California Pacific Medical Center, Department of Transplant, and the Chief Innovation Officer for the transplant service line. 

Dr. Ho is passionate about process and systems improvement and leveraging technology to improve patient outcomes and population health. She believes in a patient-centered approach in her practice and strongly advocates for her patients. She maintains board certifications in gastroenterology, transplant hepatology, and clinical informatics.

Tune in to the full podcast on:

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About the SGH Hospital of the Future Podcast

What comes to mind when you think about the hospital of the future? How will rapidly-evolving technology enhance the human touch which is so essential in reshaping healthcare?

Join us as we dive into emerging medical technologies and trends, and significant healthtech innovations making an impact on integrated future health systems and new models of care. We bring you industry experts and luminaries from across the globe and their exclusive insights, as we explore how to unlock new value and better outcomes while looking after both patients and healthcare workers.

Whether you're a healthcare professional, tech enthusiast, or curious about the future of medicine, our healthcare innovation podcast keeps you ahead of the curve in the advancing world of healthcare.

Tune-in to more episodes in the series at SGH Hospital of the Future Podcast.