Tie-up to bring digital healthcare to Sabah rural residents
LUMPUR: MEASAT Global Bhd (Measat) – Malaysia's rural broadband service provider has teamed up with healthcare technology company Mudah Healthtech Sdn Bhd (Mudah Healthtech) to offer the Sihat Xpress telehealth service in remote communities enabled by the CONNECTme NOW satellite broadband service.
To mark the partnership, the two companies introduced the initiative and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at Kg Togop Darat 1 in Ranau, the first rural Sihat Xpress site in Malaysia, serving as a proof-of-concept for improving rural healthcare through digital technology.
The MOU signing was witnessed by Datuk Flovia Ng, Assistant Minister of Community Development and People's Wellbeing for Sabah.
Through the MOU, Measat and Mudah Healthtech aim to provide digital healthcare services for up to 1,000,000 Malaysians in unserved and underserved rural and remote communities nationwide, leveraging on close to 4,000 CONNECTme NOW hotspots located across rural Malaysia, supported by Measat's expansive rural distribution network.
The MoU also sees the two companies committing to digitalise clinics with telehealth capabilities, enabling at least 1,000 doctors to support up to 2,000 Sihat Xpress rural telehealth kiosks to be rolled out at CONNECTme NOW sites within the next 2 years.
Via the Sihat Xpress initiative, villagers can currently use telehealth kiosks to conduct self-checking of their oxygen level, blood pressure and body temperature, besides consulting a doctor online on various nonemergency medical issues, such as minor illnesses and general health inquiries. Other health checks that may potentially be introduced in the future include blood glucose testing.
In the long-term, the telehealth kiosks can be a viable solution for mitigating healthcare delivery concerns such as alleviating overcrowding and long wait times at healthcare facilities; improving health literacy in rural communities by providing educational content; and reducing the incidence of non-communicable diseases, by empowering residents to take control of their health with basic health screening and diagnostic tools that enable timely interventions.
Measat chief operating officer Yau Chyong Lim said “Our collaboration with Mudah Healthtech for the Sihat Xpress rural telehealth initiative is part of our long-term effort to contribute to Malaysia's national goals beyond providing telecommunications services.
"With CONNECTme NOW as an enabler, we empower rural entrepreneurship and connect residents to the digital economy via the KampungDigital365.com initiative.
"Here, we are enabling digital healthcare in rural areas for up to 1,000,000 unserved and underserved people through our CONNECTme NOW hotspots.
"Through digital healthcare, we aim to help reduce the healthcare delivery gap in remote communities, empowering rural residents to proactively monitor their health via routine checks and online consultations without spending time and money travelling long distances to a healthcare facility.”
The Sihat Xpress initiative in rural areas is aligned with national goals to digitalise all healthcare facilities by 2030 to uplift service delivery, and the potential implementation of telehealth as a cost-effective method to address gaps in highquality healthcare delivery in remote areas besides collecting data to support public health planning to achieve better outcomes.