Exist Software Labs, Chinese General Hospital team up for cloud technology

The latest project involving a leading 600-bed hospital in the Philippines and a premier software and healthcare solutions provider proves that the future of healthcare is in the cloud.

MANILA, Philippines (As released) — Top Philippine tertiary healthcare institution Chinese General Hospital and Medical Center achieved another milestone with a new hospital information system that helps bring the hospital closer to a more technologically equipped and operationally efficient facility.

Using Exist Software Labs' next-generation hospital information system MERX™, the Chinese General Hospital is setting its sights on the highly dynamic healthcare landscape. With an innovative technology, it aims to help clinicians deliver superior patient care.

"Advancements in the healthcare industry are intertwined with improvements in technology," said Jamie Dy, director for information communications technology and data privacy officer of CGHMC.

"We patiently searched for the type of hospital system that will best address our current requirements to better fulfill our vow of providing quality care while keeping track of the kind of hospital modernization including data privacy and security compliance that we wanted to achieve," Dy added.

The breakthrough made CGHMC the first to comprehensively adopt web-based technology and cloud infrastructure in the management of an expansive medical institution.

"Implementing robust and advanced IT systems is a major investment, not only about license costs but investing in tech people as well. We knew our strength lies in our healthcare core but with working with Exist Software Labs, we are proud converts to the power of tech innovation to help carry our hospital services further," Dy said.

Michael Lim, CEO of Exist, said the web and the internet can indeed transform not just social and personal lives, but also enterprises, including hospitals.

"The best technology, done right, can really empower the users to do better work," Lim said. "With MERX™, we help steer hospitals away from the complexities of maintaining traditional legacy systems so they can instead focus on their core delivery which for CGHMC is about healthcare."

Designed to address both operational and clinical requirements of hospitals, MERX™ supports hospitals preparing for a near-paperless setup using integrated electronic medical records. The system utilizes an entirely web framework that has become the standard for enterprise systems worldwide.

"Being a web-based system, MERX™ gave us the option of using the cloud, which helps us save and reduce our capital expenses and at the same time mitigate the risk of running our own IT infrastructure that has often plagued non-IT core organizations," Dy explained.

"Evenmore fascinating is the fact that cloud platforms now rival traditional on-premise hardware performance and at same time complies with global privacy and security protocols," he continued.

While a number of healthcare apps especially electronic medical records run on the cloud, there are very few precedents for operating a large tertiary hospital almost entirely on it.

By proving that a cloud setup works, smaller to mid-size hospitals on a budget have better chances to benefit from modern hospital systems at manageable costs by cutting the expenses associated with forming an IT team and purchasing hardware.

"Part of the job of running a hospital is doing continuous research beyond the field of medicine – by observing other industries as well," Dy said. "From manufacturing to banks, you can see how widespread the use of technology has become integral to business success."

The youthful CIO added: "With our current technology partner Exist, we are confident that our doctors, nurses and, other employees are now among best-equipped to achieve the best possible outcomes to the Filipinos who entrust CGHMC for their health and care."