Tag Archives: Health Systems
The training of young doctors
I spent a better part of Saturday with the NUHS residents across different specialties. A duty and privilege to share perspectives and learn from each other. Many of us in the private sector acquire so much of our skills and knowledge whilst in the public sector and only right we ‘pay it forward’. I must […]
Unintended Consequences in Healthcare
I was honored to be invited as a speaker and panel discussant at yesterday’s Behavioral Sciences Institute Annual Conference on ‘Unintended Consequences’. The gist of my presentation and ensuing discussion are as below: Health is a complex adaptive system and the complexity, inter-relations and externalities which drive unintended consequences are beyond complete human appreciation and […]
Healthcare Productivity, Changing the Model of Care and the Role of GPs
This will be a long post and so apologies in advance. I wanted to be transparent and share the correspondence I had with the TODAY journalist who was obtaining perspectives for a ‘Big Read’ on healthcare productivity. This was published yesterday in a long piece titled “The Big Read: Beyond a jobs boost, healthcare sector […]
Obamacare and MediShield Life- TODAY 15 Nov 2013
I chaired a session on Obamacare and what implications there are for MediShield Life in NUS yesterday and later participated in a panel discussion on the topic. Must say it was pure coincidence that the Ministry of Health Singapore announced that it would reveal the names of the members appointed to the MediShield Life review […]
Breathing ‘life’ into MediShield Life (Straits Times 23 Sept 2013)
Since ‘MediShield Life’ entered the public lexicon a month ago, commentators and citizens alike have raised concerns on everything from the setting of premiums to the fairness of the healthy paying for the unhealthy to mitigating the dangers of ‘abuse’. As the Ministry of Health engages in public consultation, it is worth stepping back and […]
How should Singapore’s Healthcare System Change (Straits Times 7 Sept 2013)
It was hard to offer excerpts from my upcoming book ‘Myth or Magic: The Singapore Healthcare System’ within the word limit constraints of a newspaper. The Straits Times editors chose the chapter ‘How should Singapore change?’ and asked initially for the over 10,000 words to be condensed into 1,500 words. I tried but could not […]
Protected: What Next for Singapore Healthcare post-National Day Rally 2013
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
From talking about ‘personal responsibility’ to thinking about ‘nation’
I wrote the commentary below which was published in TODAY for the following reasons: 1. Ask that Singaporeans, cynical or otherwise, recognize that whatever they may personally feel, the changes in healthcare announced are a major shift away from the previously dominant ideology. Recall that in a previous post, I had highlighted the elder Mr. […]
“Myth or Magic: The Singapore Healthcare System”- Out next month!
It has been more than 8 months of plowing through old government reports, parliamentary speeches, newspaper articles and speaking to many, many people in Singapore and internationally about the Singapore health system, and quiet days of reflection. And this is 8 months built on almost two decades of working in and working on the Singapore system. Well, one […]
Insights Health Associates 
The challenge of going beyond healthcare to health
‘Business model innovation’ is all the craze in the commercial healthcare world, what with increasing consumerization, ‘digitalization’ and payer pricing pressures. It’s also become clear that there are fundamental differences between the ecosystems for health as opposed to healthcare. In reviewing the recent Singapore budget debates on the health sector, I felt going ‘Beyond Healthcare […]