L.E.K. Consulting, a global management consultant, recently conducted a survey involving 230 hospital directors across Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore. The survey aimed to gain insights into the strategic priorities and challenges faced by these hospital directors.

Over the next three years, private hospitals in Southeast Asia are anticipated to prioritize the adoption of new medical technologies and treatments to enhance service delivery and distinguish themselves from competitors. Additionally, there is a focus on improving staff safety.

Hospitals in the region are expected to increase investment and capacity in diagnostic imaging (54%), primary care (52%), and general surgery (51%) to address the growing healthcare demands. The report highlights a generally high rate of implementation of digital health solutions in Southeast Asian hospitals, particularly in areas such as patient administration, patient information management, and initial consultation.

While Southeast Asian hospitals lag behind China and India in the adoption of patient information and data technologies, they lead the Asia-Pacific region in implementing digital tools for remote consultation, disease management, prevention, treatment (including AI-based clinical decision support tools), and post-discharge monitoring.

Hospital directors in the region highly value digital health solutions for enhancing patient care, creating new revenue streams, increasing staff satisfaction, improving staff efficiency, and expanding capacity. Despite these positive sentiments, concerns about patient privacy (60%) and the shortage of talent to develop and implement technologies (57%) remain significant barriers to the broader adoption of digital solutions.