KUALA LUMPUR (April 28): In a Covid-19 pandemic-driven new normal, IHH Healthcare Bhd managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Dr Kelvin Loh Chi-Keon said the hospital operator must align itself with three major trends that have started to shape the healthcare industry, namely healthcare being delivered digitally, rising demand by consumers for greater transparency and better public-private partnership.

Dr Loh said in IHH Healthcare's latest annual report, which was filed with Bursa Malaysia today, that as Covid-19 accelerated the group's efforts to innovate, leverage synergies and build platforms for growth, IHH Healthcare now has the momentum to continue in the same direction. 

"This means adopting disruptive technology where necessary to sharpen our medical capabilities and stay relevant to the market, as well as continuing to apply our refreshed strategy in our quest to become the world's most trusted healthcare services network.

"Currently IHH Healthcare's geographical footprint gives us earning resilience as some of our key markets are on the pandemic recovery path even as others are experiencing a resurgence of Covid-19 cases. 

"There are roll-outs of tested and approved vaccines and we have reason to believe that the health crisis might be alleviated in 2021," he said.

Dr Loh said that even prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, IHH Healthcare had already been offering more healthcare services digitally.

One example was the release of two mobile apps by Parkway Pantai in Singapore in the second quarter of 2019, namely the Parkway DigiHealth app for patients and the Parkway DigiCare app for specialist doctors, according to him.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has no doubt accelerated the necessity for delivering healthcare digitally as patients need to get information more quickly and without visiting hospitals if possible.

"In response, we rolled out our telemedicine initiative across our network in May 2020 to complement our bricks-and-mortar business as well as to make receiving healthcare diagnosis and advice more convenient for patients," he said.

Dr Loh said IHH Healthcare must be transparent with patients about how their money will be spent so they can better understand the value they will be getting at any price point.

According to him, this action builds trust, which in turn leads to patients returning to IHH Healthcare to address their medical concerns.

"Post Covid-19, the need for transparency will be greater than ever and I am pleased that IHH Healthcare has taken the lead in this area, particularly in Singapore and Hong Kong," he claimed.

"The pandemic this past year also illustrated the importance of public and private sectors working together to deal with a health crisis. In all our home and key markets, IHH stood by the various governments in their fight against the virus in significant ways. We intend to forge more of these important partnerships in future," he said.

At Bursa Malaysia's 12.30pm break today, IHH Healthcare's share price settled down two sen or 0.37% at RM5.33 for a market value of about RM46.8 billion.

IHH Healthcare has 8.78 billion issued shares, according to its annual report.