Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Altera Digital Health, formerly the Allscripts Hospitals and Large Physician Practices business segment and a global leader in healthcare IT, has announced that its Sunrise™ Oncology solution has gone live at National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), a specialty centre under SingHealth, Singapore’s largest public healthcare group.
SingHealth, supported by the national HealthTech agency Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS), will be using Sunrise Oncology to elevate its multi-disciplinary and integrated care approach for more than 30,000 healthcare professionals in its network of acute hospitals, national specialty centres, community hospitals and polyclinics, which serve almost half of Singapore’s healthcare needs.
As part of NCCS’ commitment to deliver high quality cancer care to patients in Singapore and the region, SingHealth started working on an extended e-chemotherapy project that encompasses the delivery of Sunrise Oncology as one component.
Sunrise Oncology is an oncology-specific EMR solution that provides clinicians the tools they need to support the complexities of cancer care. It provides decision support at the point of clinical prescribing and evidence-based treatment regimens with real-time analysis of efficacy, toxicities and outcomes.
The intention is to create a paperless electronic oncology workflow by consolidating the workflow for medical oncology across multiple SingHealth institutions, including NCCS, Singapore General Hospital (SGH), KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and satellite and outpatient cancer treatment centres at Sengkang General Hospital and Changi General Hospital. This brings together existing paper and electronic workflows into Sunrise to standardise and enhance the integration with patients’ electronic medical records. For example, a patient may receive their diagnosis and undergo their initial treatment at NCCS (or even as an inpatient at SGH), but subsequently choose to receive the remaining cancer treatment in a satellite centre closer to where they live for greater convenience. With Sunrise Oncology, doctors, nurses and pharmacists from across SingHealth institutions will have visibility of key patient information, including their prior treatment and any important notes (such as any adverse drug reactions).
“The implementation of Sunrise Oncology across SingHealth institutions provides a clusterwide integrated oncology solution, which enables clinicians to access patient data more efficiently, improves patient safety and ensures seamless continuity of care for the patient,” said Associate Professor Lita Chew, Group Director, Allied Health, SingHealth and Head of Pharmacy Department, NCCS.
To meet growing healthcare needs, the new 24-storey NCCS building was officially opened in 2023 with increased capacity and expanded facilities dedicated to cancer care, rehabilitation, research and education.
As part of this expansion, Sunrise Oncology has been implemented in phases to standardise oncology workflows and streamline processes across all SingHealth institutions. This will support workflows for both solid tumours and blood cancers across oncology and haematology services — across institutions — and provide seamless integration with other Sunrise modules.
Todd Haebich, Executive Vice President, APAC of Altera Digital Health congratulated SingHealth on the Sunrise Oncology go-live at NCCS.
“Altera Digital Health is committed to driving a new era of healthcare powered by the Platform of Health; one with greater interoperability and lessened information burden that drives valuebased care for improved health outcomes,” Haebich said “The flexibility of the Sunrise solution has enabled SingHealth to develop and build on the platform to deploy customised tools alongside a wide range of oncology protocol regimes. This ensures high-quality and standardised care, where patients can seamlessly move from inpatient care to outpatient care and vice versa. The Sunriseplatform will support SingHealth in strengthening its care management processes and advancing its continued delivery of reliable, quality healthcare to Singaporeans.”
Anna Grammare, General Manager of Altera Digital Health Singapore and Philippines, added, “This has been a momentous and exciting 18 months for Altera in Singapore. We are proud to be supporting SingHealth in the rollout of Sunrise Oncology across the various institutions despite the massive impact of COVID-19 and other health system pressures. SingHealth and Altera Digital Health teams have worked closely to develop a solution that meets requirements across the different settings – inpatient, outpatient and in the future, paediatrics. The final solution is fit for purpose and integrates seamlessly into current workflows and into the Sunrise ecosystem at SingHealth.”
“As the technology agency for Singapore’s public healthcare sector, we strive to transform healthcare and improve the lives of patients through harnessing technology,” said Hooi Ka Mei, Director, Delivery Ops Management & Planning of Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS). “We are proud to have been a part of this transformative journey for SingHealth, ensuring a seamless transition from its legacy system to Sunrise Oncology. We are confident that the new workflow and solution will pave the way for better oncology care for patients.”
Amidst the changing needs in the healthcare industry, Altera Digital Health is focused on delivering innovation across the entire care continuum and strengthening optimisation for hospital systems, creating long-term interoperability and changing how healthcare can be delivered.
About Altera Digital Health
A global healthcare IT leader, Altera Digital Health develops and elevates technology to connect and inspire healthier communities. Our platform approach to our solutions is changing the way healthcare is delivered. By keeping the human user at the center of our design methodology, we are supporting caregivers and helping patients meet and exceed their wellness goals. Together, with our clients, we’re driving a new era of healthcare. To learn more, visit www.alterahealth.com
For more information contact: mediarelations@alterahealth.com.
About SingHealth
SingHealth, Singapore’s largest public healthcare cluster, is committed to providing affordable, accessible and quality healthcare to patients. With a network of acute hospitals, national specialty centres, polyclinics and community hospitals offering over 40 clinical specialties, it delivers comprehensive, multi-disciplinary and integrated care. Beyond hospital walls, SingHealth partners community care providers to enable the population to keep well, get well and live well. As part of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, SingHealth also focuses on advancing education and research to continuously improve care outcomes for patients. For more information, please visit: www.singhealth.com.sg
Members of the SingHealth group
Hospitals (Tertiary Specialty Care):
Singapore General Hospital, Changi General Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital and KK Women's and Children's Hospital
National Specialty Centres (Tertiary Specialty Care):
National Cancer Centre Singapore, National Dental Centre Singapore, National Heart Centre Singapore, National Neuroscience Institute, and Singapore National Eye Centre
SingHealth Polyclinics (Primary Care):
Bedok, Bukit Merah, Marine Parade, Outram, Pasir Ris, Punggol, Sengkang, Tampines, Eunos, Tampines North (expected completion: 2023) and Kaki Bukit (expected completion: 2025)
SingHealth Community Hospitals (Intermediate and Long-term Care):
Bright Vision Hospital, Sengkang Community Hospital, and Outram Community Hospital
For media enquiries, please contact:
media@singhealth.com.sg
About Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS)
IHiS is a leading healthcare technology firm that integrates resilient, intelligent, secure, and cost-effective technology with people and processes to make healthcare more efficient, more inclusive, more accessible, and safer for patients.
IHiS supports more than 70,000 healthcare users in Singapore's public healthcare sector to bring about healthcare transformation through the use of technology. We harness multiple healthtech domains – health AI, telemedicine, electronic health records, digital health applications, and more, to push the boundaries of transformative health to improve population health, make healthcare more sustainable, and enhance the patient experience.
For more information, visit us at www.ihis.com.sg, or connect with us on Facebook and follow us on LinkedIn to learn more about the latest healthcare IT news.
