The Editors’ Musings

Tina Tan

This month's issue was intended to update our readers on the Government's proposed Health Information Bill and changes to the National Electronic Health Record. However, that has been tabled for a later issue while the Ministry of Health (MOH) consolidates feedback on the bill following a recent public consultation. Nevertheless, in preparation for pending announcements from MOH, we thought it timely to feature Dr T Thirumoorthy's contribution on medical confidentiality in the digital age. It is a difficult balance to achieve, and we are all navigating this complex landscape together.

We have also published a slew of heartwarming articles on various local endeavours by our colleagues. These include efforts to reach out to seniors by a trio of medical students, the National University Health System's (NUHS) GENIE and NUHS@Home programmes, and KK Women's and Children's Hospital's project to enhance perinatal mental healthcare for women, especially those from socially disadvantaged families.

Happy reading.

Cuthbert Teo

This issue contains an article on Project Sukacita written by three participating medical students. The Indonesian word sukacita expresses joy – not only feeling joy and happiness, but also bringing joy, happiness, relief and compassion to others.

In 2015, I was part of the disaster victim identification team that Singapore sent to Bhayangkara Hospital in Surabaya following the Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crash. After one particularly emotionally exhausting day, an Indonesian police officer brought us out for spikoe (Surabaya layer cake), which cheered us up a lot. As we laughed at unfunny jokes, he said to us, "Dari kehancuran menuju sukacita" – from disaster to joy.

Healthcare workers (HCWs) can find sukacita by exercising good leadership, using what we learn to empower others to manage things within our control, and to manage ourselves when things are beyond our control. For leaders, understanding the multi-faceted drivers of healthcare provision and resource allocation can bring sukacita to ourselves, our patients and society.

Separately, two students share their experiences engaging seniors in health and digital literacy. Advanced age, disability and poverty are the biggest predictors of social isolation stemming from digital exclusion.^1,2

The rapid advancement of technology has brought both unprecedented opportunities and challenges.³ Healthcare leaders must consider and ethically address concerns on the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare (eg, data privacy, algorithm bias and AI's resulting societal impact).^4,5

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted concerns on seniors' digital isolation.⁶ The younger generation of HCWs must come forward as leaders to study how we can improve the digital inclusion of our seniors and lead dialogues and collaborations with stakeholders at all levels.

1. Centre for Ageing Better. How has COVID-19 changed the landscape of digital inclusion? Available at: https://bit.ly/497THle. Accessed 8 February 2024.
2. Datta A, Bhatia V, Noll J, Dixit S. Bridging the Digital Divide: Challenges in Opening the Digital World to the Elderly, Poor, and Digitally Illiterate. IEEE Consum Electron Mag 2019; 8(1):78-81.
3. Petersson L, Larsson I, Nygren JM, et al. Challenges to implementing artificial intelligence in healthcare: a qualitative interview study with healthcare leaders in Sweden. BMC Health Serv Res 2022; 22:850.
4. Page I. Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare Leadership. HealthManagement 2023; 23(6):385-8.
5. Miller DD. The medical AI insurgency: what physicians must know about data to practice with intelligent machines. NPJ Digit Med 2019; 2:62.
6. Weil J, Kamber T, Glazebrook A, Giorgi M, Ziegler K. Digital Inclusion of Older Adults during COVID-19: Lessons from a Case Study of Older Adults Technology Services (OATS). J Gerontol Soc Work 2021; 64(6):643-55.