Asia’s Largest Seminar HMA 2018 Held in Thailand Under the Theme “Technology, Transformation and Cost Management”

          The seminar addresses key factors to enable hospital business move towards a new healthcare 4.Hospital Management Asia as well as delivers knowledge and understanding on cost management with the adoption of new technologies to achieve the most efficiency.

          Hospital Management Asia (HMA) 2Hospital Management Asia18, the Asia's largest healthcare seminar which is being held in Thailand during Sept 13-14, 2Hospital Management Asia18, is a major event to gather top-level hospital executives and healthcare professionals across Asia Pacific to Thailand to share and exchange experiences and in-depth knowledge towards the development of new innovation for hospital business as well as the improvement of healthcare system management.
          Five key topics are to be discussed in the seminar including topic related to financial sustainability through investment; and the impact of public policy on hospital services and how to address the challenge of implementing cost-of-care. Other interesting topics are safety, quality and accreditation for services offered by the hospitals; patient care and engagement; talent management; and healthcare 4.Hospital Management Asia.
          Participants will acknowledge the latest healthcare technology, cost management, and patient safety so as to optimize and improve patient health outcomes. Moreover, they will have a chance to learn about healthcare 4.Hospital Management Asia, hospital investment, healthcare management across Asia region, and ways to address the lack of human resources in healthcare industry.
          Dr. Pongpat Patanavanich, the President of the Private Hospital Association of Thailand as advisory chairman of HMA 2Hospital Management Asia18, said pacing into a new aging society is now alerting Thailand to concern on healthcare system. Not only does the country focus on merely public health, it also have to prepare related and proper environments to take care of elderly people which are steadily increasing in the country.
          "HMA 2Hospital Management Asia18 is an important event that healthcare professionals and executives can discover new knowledge not only in technology side but also in hospital management and new regulation development aspects. From the seminar, they can envision the future of hospital business which is moving towards a new healthcare 4.Hospital Management Asia era and realize the importance of digital transformation. Even though many private hospitals in Thailand are following such a trend, they still have many parts needed to complete," Dr. Pongpat said.
          Importantly, HMA 2Hospital Management Asia18 in Bangkok has gathered top executives from hospitals in Asia Pacific region to discuss and share experiences towards hospital business management in a new era and the adoption of new technology for cost management.
          The seminar, he said, will address ways to select proper technologies for the hospital's investment as the best and latest technologies available in the market could not guarantee a real ability in providing good-standard medical and healthcare services to the patients. If hospitals choose to invest on unreasonable technologies, it will directly impact the hospital's operation cost and then reflect to the patient's expenses. 
          Dr. Pongpat also points to the so-called "Integrated Care" concept that public health circles in Thailand should concern on and begin to study the possibility for further implementation.
          According to World Health Organization (WHO), integrated care is a model to bring together inputs, delivery, management and organization of services related to diagnosis, treatment, care, rehabilitation and health promotion. Integration is a means to improve services in relation to access, quality, user satisfaction and efficiency.
The concept is a worldwide trend in health care reforms and new organizational arrangements focusing on more coordinated and integrated forms of care provision. Integrated care may be seen as a response to the fragmented delivery of health and social services being an acknowledged problem in many health systems.
          "We aims to use HMA 2Hospital Management Asia18 as a stage for healthcare professionals in Thailand to participate and realize the transformation towards the healthcare 4.Hospital Management Asia in accordance with the government's Thailand 4.Hospital Management Asia policy. Meanwhile, hospital and medical executives can learn and acknowledge principles and methods to develop and improve their organizations to achieve international standard and leverage medical and healthcare service provision to the people," he said.
          He added that hospital business in the future will no longer provide merely medical treatments, but it will become healthcare center to offer a full range of healthcare services.
          Richard Ireland, the Managing Director of Clarion Event Asia as the HMA 2Hospital Management Asia18 organizer, said the 17th hospital management seminar this year emphasizes the importance of healthcare 4.Hospital Management Asia for hospital business. It's seen that the advent of healthcare 4.Hospital Management Asia will be a driving force to push hospitals towards digital transformation, leveraging the hospitals' operations to be more efficient, improving patient safety and providing better healthcare services.
          In accordance with the Thai government's Thailand 4.Hospital Management Asia policy, Richard added that hospital business in Thailand has to adjust itself to cope up with the new 4.Hospital Management Asia era. In other countries including Singapore and Hong Kong, their hospital business is also moving into the same destination as healthcare 4.Hospital Management Asia is the worldwide trend.
          In Richard's view, technologies such as artificial intelligence and in-depth data analytics are coming to play an important role in healthcare business and they're giving a big impact to the industry. 
          "Fundamentally, technology allows hospitals to make better data management and this will assist doctors to diagnose the patients' symptoms with more accuracy. But more importantly, the development of AI and in-depth data analytics will enable medical circles to analyse new emerging diseases much faster while discover the diseases' sources and offer better medical treatments to the patients. All these definitely will bring to an ultimate goal of making people to have longer life," Richard said.
          However, when everything goes digital, data security is a major issue that healthcare industry has to concern on the ways to protect patients' personal data. Richard said HMA 2Hospital Management Asia18 is a stage where people in medical circles and hospital business can learn and share ideas and experiences on all related healthcare issues.
          HMA 2Hospital Management Asia18 is organized by Clarion Event Asia and Private Hospital Association of Thailand.