INTERNATIONAL ALLIED HEALTH CONFERENCE 2024: A GLOBAL PLATFORM FOR HEALTHCARE COLLABORATION

Singapore hosts landmark event uniting over 1,100 Allied Health Professionals and students from around the world

SINGAPORE, Nov. 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The International Allied Health Conference (IAHC 2024), which was held in conjunction with the third Singapore Allied Health Conference on 1 November 2024, brought together about 1,100 global Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) and students from over 18 countries to foster collaboration and innovation. The event was graced by Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for Social and Family Development and Second Minister for Health.

The Global Allied Health Network was launched at the International Allied Health Conference 2024 by representatives of the three public healthcare clusters and global allied health leaders.

Organised by the National University Health System (NUHS), in partnership with SingHealth and the National Healthcare Group (NHG), the conference aims to unite the international Allied Health community, highlight the collective efforts to advance healthcare, promote professional development across the care continuum, and amplify the impact of AHPs. In addition, it is also focused on igniting conversations to advance the future of the profession.

The conference theme, “Advancing Allied Health: Diverse in Calling, United in Purpose,” emphasises the shared mission of healthcare professionals from diverse specialties, including physiotherapists, dietitians, audiologists, and radiographers, to enhance patient care worldwide.

One of the key highlights of IAHC 2024 was the launch of the Global Allied Health Network (GAHN), with a leadership summit to formalise a strategic collaboration that will see engagements with key stakeholder organisations, including the World Health Organization, to bolster the role of AHPs in world health programmes. GAHN, comprising AHP leaders from Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom, will enable practitioners to strengthen their collective impact on healthcare delivery.

Across all three public healthcare clusters in Singapore, AHPs have been empowering patients to lead healthier lives through impactful initiatives. To address the current and future healthcare challenges due to population demographic changes, AHPs have been adopting strategies, including leveraging technology (e.g. using robotic process automation to optimise resources and productivity, 3D printing of devices and mobile applications to promote remote assessment and patient education) and developing programmes to promote and enhance the healthcare delivery in the community (e.g. EatSafe SG, Bukit Batok Township Model of Care, and extending audiology services from hospitals into the community).

Adjunct Associate Professor Michael Ong, Group Director of Allied Health at NUHS and Convenor of the conference, said, “NUHS is privileged to lead the planning of IAHC to bring the international Allied Health community together and harness our collective strengths and insights on a global scale. The theme was purposefully crafted to encompass the wide range of AHPs practising across various touchpoints in the care continuum, regardless of their location and specialty. Despite the diverse Allied Health professions and the recognition of AHPs in the respective jurisdictions, AHPs remain united in their purpose, playing crucial roles in today’s multidisciplinary teams and delivering care to our patients and clients.”

Adjunct Associate Professor Tan Bee Yee, Group Chief Allied Health Professional, SingHealth and Co-organiser of the conference, said, “SingHealth is honoured to partner with NUHS and NHG to organise IAHC. Through key platforms like the IAHC, we are able to tap on the collective wisdom and experience of our AHPs and exchange best practices that can enable us to raise the bar of excellence and drive more impactful healthcare outcomes. I am also heartened by the tremendous support and partnership of our cluster colleagues in organising this year’s conference and I look forward to learning from the robust dialogues of our participants, their aspirations in advancing practice and research to ultimately, improve patient care, globally.”

Adjunct Professor Susan Niam, Group Chief Allied Health, NHG, who is also the Chief Allied Health Officer, Ministry of Health (MOH), Singapore, said, “AHPs are well-positioned to recognise and develop connections, flows, and relationships surrounding end-to-end patient care, address the social determinants of health, and focus on preventive care, to enable the population to manage their health and receive care and support within the community where they live or work. As such, we envision allied health services influencing this primary and community care space to support preventive care as well as chronic disease management. We are glad to be a key partner for this year’s IAHC, which has been pivotal in allowing the AHPs of all three clusters to learn from each other and enhance their capabilities, to better meet the needs of the population that we serve.”

Adjunct Associate Professor Camilla Wong, Director of Allied Health, Sengkang General Hospital, and Chief Pharmacist, MOH, said, “The IAHC covers crucial topics in today’s rapidly changing healthcare landscape and our AHPs can look forward to the engaging discussions with leading experts across diverse fields, gaining fresh perspectives and key takeaways.”

Annex

Initiatives led by AHPs

Initiatives	Description and contacts
National level initiative: EatSafe SG	EatSafe SG is a national effort led by Speech Therapists and Dietitians across the three public healthcare clusters, which aims to improve patient safety; communication between healthcare providers and patients by adopting standardised diet and fluid labels and descriptors. The impact has been profound, with more than 55,000 clinicians, educators and care personnel involved in this change, further enhancing the safety of eating and drinking for individuals with swallowing difficulties especially when they transit across different healthcare settings during their care journey. Info: https://www.moh.gov.sg/hpp/allied-health-professionals/eatsafe-sg
Singapore General Hospital (SGH) robotic process automation (RPA)	SGH has leveraged RPA to automate routine and repetitive work, saving the hospital over 105,000 man- hours since 2020 as well as achieving approximately $3 million in cost savings from the increased productivity. An example of RPA is the collection, calculation, and analysis of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs), which are questionnaires that healthcare professionals use to learn more about their patients’ condition and how it affects their capacity to carry out daily tasks. These PROMs are essential in the provision of person-centric, value-based healthcare, with some examples being the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire, which measures one’s quality of life; as well as the Patient Specific Functional Scale, which measures one’s nominated functional activity and ability to perform the activity. The use of RPA has benefitted physiotherapists (PTs), providing them with increased clinical time with patients while also reducing unnecessary cognitive work by PTs in calculating PROMs scores. Over at the Radiography Department, staff also use RPA to automatically extract and transcribe all relevant imaging histories for patients scheduled for CT scans. This has helped eliminate potential human error with the memory work involved in toggling between multiple systems during case vetting, and is 10 times faster than when manually done, thereby fostering an efficient and focused workplace environment that benefits both patients and staff. Contact: SingHealth
RESToration Of Rehabilitative function with Epidural spinal Stimulation (RESTORES)	RESTORES is a collaboration between National Neuroscience Institution (NNI), Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH)’s Clinic for Advanced Rehabilitation Therapeutics (CART) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). This multi-disciplinary research trial by a team of neurosurgeons, rehabilitation specialists and physiotherapists has helped two participants paralysed below the chest due to severe spinal cord injuries get back on their feet. The physiotherapists complemented the epidural spinal cord electrical stimulation with a uniquely-designed rehabilitation programme consisting of motor imagery, trunk control training, robotic exoskeleton therapy, and overground walking practice. Following seven months of daily rehabilitation, there was significant functional recovery in the participants, who are now able to stand independently and walk with knee braces and rollator walking frame, after six and five years (respectively) of complete wheelchair dependency. Contact: NHG/SingHealth
Bukit Batok Township Model of Care	The Bukit Batok Township Project, led by the allied health team at the Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH), brought together NTFGH Community Operations, Grassroots Organisations and various community partners to co-create a supportive community and empower older residents to achieve holistic health. This initiative used evidence-based preventive health interventions and established an interdisciplinary network involving local social and community partners, General Practitioners and hospital AHPs and clinicians to collaboratively design care plans for high-risk residents. The project has two published papers in BMJ Open and BMC Public Health, which showed that the programme provided physical/emotional support, improved health literacy, and enhanced social interaction. It is also effective in reducing emergency department attendances and hospital admissions in older adults. Contact: NUHS
National University Hospital (NUH) extending audiology services from hospital into the community	Since the roll out of its Mobile Audiology Clinics last year, the NUH Audiology team has further extended its audiology services to over 20 locations across the nation, including Active Ageing Centres, Residents’ Networks and Community Centres, for residents who are referred for hearing assessments from functional health screenings and polyclinics. This is in addition to the audiology services provided in NUH, Mobile Hearing Clinics, and Satellite Hearing Clinic at the Jurong Medical Centre. Audiology services are traditionally provided in hospital clinics using booths for hearing tests. Faced with an ageing population, growing patient load and long waiting times in hospitals, the team decided to extend services beyond hospital walls to reach those with hearing difficulties. With this new model of Boothless Audiometry on a mobile trolley (also known as Mobile Audiology Clinic), a small team of audiology staff can rove between polyclinics and provide hearing care services to more patients in the community. Contact: NUHS

About the National University Health System (NUHS)

The National University Health System (NUHS) aims to transform how illness is prevented and managed by discovering causes of disease, development of more effective treatments through collaborative multidisciplinary research and clinical trials, and creation of better technologies and care delivery systems in partnership with others who share the same values and vision.

Institutions in the NUHS Group include the National University Hospital, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, Jurong Community Hospital and Alexandra Hospital; three National Specialty Centres – National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS), National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS) and National University Centre for Oral Health, Singapore (NUCOHS); the National University Polyclinics (NUP); Jurong Medical Centre; and three NUS health sciences schools – NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (including the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies), NUS Faculty of Dentistry and NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.

With member institutions under a common governance structure, NUHS creates synergies for the advancement of health by integrating patient care, health science education and biomedical research.

As a Regional Health System, NUHS works closely with health and social care partners across Singapore to develop and implement programmes that contribute to a healthy and engaged population in the Western part of Singapore.

For more information, please visit www.nuhs.edu.sg.

About Singapore Health Services (SingHealth)

SingHealth, Singapore’s largest public healthcare cluster, is committed to providing affordable, accessible and quality healthcare to patients. With a network of acute hospitals, national specialty centres, polyclinics and community hospitals offering over 40 clinical specialties, it delivers comprehensive, multidisciplinary and integrated care. Beyond hospital walls, SingHealth partners community care providers to enable the population to keep well, get well and live well. As part of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, SingHealth also focuses on advancing education and research to continuously improve care outcomes for patients. For more information, please visit: www.singhealth.com.sg

Members of the SingHealth group

Hospitals (Tertiary Specialty Care):
Singapore General Hospital, Changi General Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and Eastern General Hospital (expected completion around 2029 to 2030)

National Specialty Centres (Tertiary Specialty Care):
National Cancer Centre Singapore, National Dental Centre Singapore, National Heart Centre Singapore, National Neuroscience Institute, and Singapore National Eye Centre

SingHealth Polyclinics (Primary Care):
Bedok, Bukit Merah, Eunos, Marine Parade, Outram, Pasir Ris, Punggol, Sengkang, Tampines, Tampines North and Kaki Bukit (upcoming)

SingHealth Community Hospitals (Intermediate and Long-term Care):
Sengkang Community Hospital, Outram Community Hospital, and Eastern Community Hospital (expected completion around 2029 to 2030)

About National Healthcare Group (NHG)

The National Healthcare Group (NHG) is a leader in public healthcare in Singapore recognised for delivering high value patient care. Our clinical services are provided through an integrated system of primary care polyclinics, acute care tertiary hospitals, community hospitals, national specialty centres, and community-based ambulatory care centres. Together, we provide comprehensive, holistic, and innovative healthcare to address the needs of our patients and the population we serve. As a learning organisation, we are establishing ourselves as an academic health system to drive clinical excellence, raise research intensity and grow our academic partnerships to continually improve the way we deliver care to our patients.

As the Regional Health Manager for 1.5 million residents in Central and North Singapore, NHG collaborates with private general practices, public and community health and social care providers to keep residents well and healthy.

With more than 20,000 healthcare professionals in NHG, we are committed towards building healthier and resilient communities, and Adding Years of Healthy Life to the people we serve.

More information is available at www.nhg.com.sg.

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