- 3 hours ago
Malaysia is going digital — but can healthcare keep pace if access isn’t equal?
More than 54% of Malaysian adults live with at least one major non-communicable disease, making continuity of care beyond clinics critical.
As health apps and AI tools expand, their impact depends on something bigger: devices, connectivity, trust, and digital readiness.
Tehmina Kaoosji speaks to Dr Ezam Mat Ali, CEO & Founder of MedPlanner, a homegrown digital health innovation company, on why digital health only works when the wider digital ecosystem works — and what gaps still need fixing to ensure no one is left behind.
More than 54% of Malaysian adults live with at least one major non-communicable disease, making continuity of care beyond clinics critical.
As health apps and AI tools expand, their impact depends on something bigger: devices, connectivity, trust, and digital readiness.
Tehmina Kaoosji speaks to Dr Ezam Mat Ali, CEO & Founder of MedPlanner, a homegrown digital health innovation company, on why digital health only works when the wider digital ecosystem works — and what gaps still need fixing to ensure no one is left behind.
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00:07Hello and welcome to Niagara Spotlight with me Tamina Kausji.
00:10Niagara Spotlight takes us through the week in economic analysis and future affairs.
00:14Today on Future Affairs, our spotlight falls straight upon Malaysia's readiness for digital health.
00:20Now, digitalization in Malaysia is shaping how people identify themselves,
00:25how we pay for and access everyday services.
00:28And the core issue is whether the Rakyat is able to keep up with the speed of innovation.
00:34Now, this gap is most evident and also necessary in the healthcare sector.
00:40Our Ministry of Health is grappling with a shortage of nearly 11,000 specialist doctors
00:45and nearly 15,000 nurses impacting the public health sector in particular.
00:51Simultaneously, more than half of Malaysian adults live with at least one chronic condition.
00:56For them, medical care doesn't just happen in a clinic.
01:00It happens at home, in between visits, when questions come up and critical support isn't always there.
01:06This is where digital health tools are able to step in to close that gap between healthcare worker shortages and
01:13patient needs.
01:14But apps require an entire supportive ecosystem.
01:17They depend on working smartphones, reliable data, systems that connect and users who trust them.
01:24If any part of that structure falls apart, the medical care does too.
01:29Today on Niagara Spotlight, we're asking what it really takes for digital healthcare to work in Malaysia.
01:34Joining me live in the studios is Dr. Azam Matt Ali, CEO and founder of MedPlanner,
01:40a former UK-trained consultant paediatrician who now builds health tech for hospitals, clinicians and the public,
01:46including Ask Hemi, an AI health companion designed to support patients beyond the clinic.
01:53A very good morning, Dr. Azam. How are you doing today?
01:56I'm very good, thank you. And it's a pleasure to be here.
01:59Absolutely. So let's get cracking, Dr. Azam.
02:02Now, when we look at Malaysia and the fact that we are also digitising identity and services really quickly,
02:09it's happening literally at the speed of months, not at the speed of years anymore.
02:15But in your experience, and especially via the experience of building Ask Hemi,
02:20what would be the minimum criteria actually for us to digitise efficiently for the healthcare sector?
02:29Okay. So, first of all, I'd like to explain what Ask Hemi is.
02:34Yes, please.
02:35So, Hemi actually stands for Health Medical Intelligence.
02:38So when you're asking Hemi, Hemi also sounds like a person, right?
02:42Okay. So, there are questions about the minimum sort of conditions required for these to be properly used as skills.
02:53I would say, first of all, in order to use something like Ask Hemi, you will need a device access.
03:00So, mobile phones, right?
03:01Sure. And something that's updated enough as well.
03:04Yes, yes, yes.
03:05So, okay. So, mobile phones ownership in Malaysia is 99.9%, which is actually a lot.
03:13But there's also something else called connectivity, right?
03:16So, 99% of individuals in the urban area have got connectivity.
03:22However, in the rural area, only 95%.
03:26Although 95% might sound a lot, but 5% actually equals to 1.9 million of users.
03:33Okay. So, what happens to them?
03:36All right.
03:37So, but we have to start somewhere.
03:39Okay.
03:40Why do we need to start somewhere is because we know the huge burdens of diseases in Malaysia.
03:46And diseases, we like to concentrate on the health, the biggest burden, which is non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes.
03:55So, at least one out of five Malaysians have diabetes.
03:59So, if you do your maths, right, this cannot continue for long, right?
04:03So, having an app like Alzheimer's will help manage patients with diabetes to reduce the problems that arise from the
04:14conditions.
04:15And it can also be used preventatively to prevent NCDs from happening.
04:20So, what I'm saying here is, okay, maybe there's not enough connectivity in the rural areas, but we have to
04:26start somewhere.
04:27So, what do we do with those in the rural areas?
04:30Exactly, that 1.9 million.
04:32Yes, yeah.
04:33So, imagine the people who are disabled or less stable.
04:36We do not forget them.
04:38We still provide healthcare to them.
04:40So, in the same way, for people who are less able digitally, okay, we provide options, alternative options for them.
04:49So, digital health, hopefully, finally, we'll get to them.
04:53You never know.
04:53Starlings might be available in rural areas, everywhere.
04:57But what I'm saying is, it should not, our building blocks are there, okay?
05:02So, we must not stop using digital health, deploying it to improve patient care right now,
05:10because we have critical issues that we need to address.
05:15Exactly.
05:15So, thank you for that really excellent overview that actually helps highlight the urgency of the issue.
05:21Dr. Azam, I'd like to dig a little bit deeper when it comes to NCDs and, of course, the between
05:26visits gap.
05:28Yes.
05:28Where, in particular, also as a former clinician yourself, do you see digital health apps being able to close the
05:35gap most?
05:36Is it when it comes to prevention?
05:38Is it triage?
05:40Or is it more continuity of care when it comes to our NCDs, particularly, such as diabetes in particular?
05:46Okay.
05:47So, if I were to rank them, I would say continuity of care first, okay?
05:52And we go through the ranking.
05:54Sure.
05:54So, why do I say continuity of care?
05:57Because that is the immediate need, okay?
05:59So, at least one in five of lesions have diabetes, as I said before, so you can't leave them.
06:09Okay.
06:09So, imagine if you've been diagnosed with diabetes, all right?
06:12So, Tamina, if I ask you, okay, we've just been diagnosed with diabetes, how much of that information do you
06:17remember from leaving the clinic?
06:19At your fingertips, right?
06:20Yeah.
06:20Okay, so, say you've been diagnosed with cancer, right?
06:24And you leave the clinic, how much of that information do you remember?
06:28It's likely all a blur.
06:30Okay.
06:31Because there's a component of shock and so on.
06:33So, research shows that only 30 to 60% of your information are retained.
06:38By the patient.
06:39Okay.
06:39And people who live with NCDs, say cancer, diabetes, hypertension, they don't live in hospitals.
06:4895% of their living with their conditions happen outside health facilities.
06:54Exactly.
06:55Because you can still continue on, go to work and all your other daily life functions.
07:00So, that's where the gap is, okay?
07:03This is where real health technology can help them.
07:08So, digital health, like Ask Hemi, which has been curated for health conditions such as this,
07:17that help patients to manage their conditions at home.
07:20So, if they need to know, oh, okay, I've just been diagnosed with diabetes, I'm feeling scared,
07:28can I still eat roti chanai, can I still drink teatare, all of that.
07:32So, using Ask Hemi, you can actually have that conversation almost like a real person.
07:38You can talk to it in any language and it will talk to you back in your own language.
07:43So, it makes it relatable.
07:45So, seamless.
07:45Relatable.
07:46Seamless.
07:46So, I mean, that's incredible.
07:48And what this particularly reminds me of, Dr. Azam, is the fact that currently, of course,
07:53we're seeing a lot of tuberculosis vector headlines in the news.
07:58Now, this isn't because tuberculosis is spreading any worse than it was in past years,
08:04but the fact that diabetes is the correlation.
08:07Yes.
08:08And to be able to monitor active deterioration for patients is what can actually help us to
08:14control further spread of the disease.
08:16Yes.
08:17So, Ask Hemi might be able to absolutely intervene for that.
08:20So, let's go into the fact that what has the user experience been like based on the feedback
08:28you have received in so far for Ask Hemi?
08:30Incredible.
08:31And why do I say incredible?
08:33Because people can feel reassured that at 10 o'clock in the evening or 3 in the morning,
08:39when clinics are closed and the worry they have or anxiety and questions they have about
08:45their health, it's not an emergency, but they need reassurances.
08:49Sure.
08:50Before they do the next thing.
08:52Absolutely.
08:52It's like, oh, I cannot remember, am I supposed to take this medication with food or after
08:58food or without milk?
08:59Even simple questions like that.
09:01And the biggest impact in terms of digital health or AI support is actually has been seen
09:09via research findings on mental health support.
09:11Because mental health, a lot of it is about conversations and therapy that way, right?
09:17So, yes, users have been absolutely thrilled that they have a support after seeing clinic.
09:27I'll give you another very good example is cancer patients.
09:31So, we work very closely with a cancer support group.
09:34So, it's very important that when you build technology, you work with patient group.
09:39So, we work with Teal Asia, which is a cancer support for cervical cancer sufferers.
09:46So, these patients, when they leave clinic, like I mentioned before, there are a lot of
09:53things, a lot of questions they can't remember and they have questions later on.
09:59So, ASASME has been a great companion to support them with questions on how to live with cancer.
10:06Exactly. And another thing would be that, in addition to the support that cancer patients
10:12receive, that those with chronic diseases, there's also the clinician burnout aspect, which
10:18an app like ASASME is actually able to overcome.
10:23Yes.
10:24Tell us a little bit more.
10:25Yes. So, I don't know whether you have seen ER or whether you've seen shows on TVs
10:31about doctors working hard, especially in the public sector.
10:35The demand in public sector is huge.
10:38So, doctors actually have to see a lot of patients.
10:41As a consequence of that, they also have a lot of what we call administrative burdens.
10:45So, things like writing notes, things like entering information into the computer.
10:50So, if you're my patient and I'm your doctor, you're sitting in my clinic in busy government
10:56hospitals. They're working there, working very hard, but at the same time, they're writing
11:01down and looking at the computer. How do you feel about that?
11:05Likely, you don't feel too well attended to.
11:08Okay.
11:08The personalization is gone.
11:10Absolutely. But now we have technology. So, HemiHealth, which is our solutions for doctors,
11:16for clinicians, what it does is, so, you record that conversations, right? At the end of that,
11:22you press the analysis and it will turn the recordings into medical notes.
11:28So, also reducing, of course, any AI hallucinations. Thank you, Dr. Essam, for the conversation so far.
11:34Don't go anywhere. We come back with the rest of this conversation right after this short break.
11:56Welcome back to Niagara Spotlight. Still with me, Tamina Kausji.
11:59And today we're looking at, is Malaysia ready for digital health?
12:02With Dr. Essam Manali, CEO and founder of MedPlanner, right here in the studios with us.
12:07Dr. Essam, so launching straight back in, you've shared something really interesting
12:12about how Ask Hemi, for example, is able to be really accurate with the kind of information shared,
12:19which also reduces AI hallucinations. Let's now talk about hospital workflows
12:25and fixing that invisible failure point, but it's something which really clinicians are experienced with.
12:32The type of feedback that you get from the doctors who are in your working group
12:37to help you improve the app, what have they been saying?
12:41So, if we look at the solutions built for the doctors, like HemiHealth,
12:48so that has been something that really, really works well for them
12:53because they can save at least one to two hours per day.
12:57Per day.
12:58Yes, per day, right?
13:00Because if they see 30 patients in clinic, which is average number, could be more,
13:04if they save for four minutes per patient, that's 120 minutes, that means they can use that time
13:11to look at the patients properly, okay, because they're no longer like being distracted.
13:17Exactly.
13:17So there is time more for patient care.
13:19And also mental exhaustion burdens for the doctors themselves are reduced.
13:24Absolutely, because a lot of the times they also have to stay after finishing clinic,
13:30we call it out of hours, pyjama time.
13:33So no longer that is an issue, or if they have to do it, probably just a few minutes or
13:38five minutes.
13:39Exactly, just to clean up the day's work.
13:41Yes, absolutely.
13:42So feedback from doctors for using a personal medical AI companion for them has been fantastic.
13:50Exactly, because what it's able to actually do is these are potential medical, legal and even
13:56patient safety risks, and it helps really cut down that burden.
14:02What are the hospital ecosystem's feedback in so far?
14:06So when it comes to hospital workflow and ecosystem, there is another solution that we at MedPlanner
14:15have developed.
14:16This solution, I would say, is very unique because it's actually not available in Malaysia.
14:23A few are available in Europe, UK, and one notable company in the US.
14:29So what is that solution?
14:31It's actually what we call a coordination layer for hospitals, for clinics to coordinate care.
14:40So what does it actually mean?
14:41So it's actually a secure clinical communication system.
14:46At the moment, doctors are using WhatsApp to coordinate care.
14:51Using WhatsApp is actually a minefield within a medical, legal and privacy settings.
14:58But doctors have to use something, right?
15:01So they are busy, especially in busy hospitals.
15:04So in order for them to coordinate care, especially if it requires multiple inputs, how do you do that?
15:12And it's busy, so you need to be efficient.
15:14So they use WhatsApp.
15:15But if you have more than three or four patients a day, what happens?
15:19Then you've got basically three dozen WhatsApp groups to go through on a daily basis.
15:24And if the patient comes back two weeks later, how do you find information about that patient?
15:29Sure, sure.
15:30So with a coordination layer, coordination care solution, this will help reduce medical, legal risk.
15:40And it's built, it's structured so that each patient is actually a channel for communication.
15:47They've got their own digital ID within the secure platform.
15:50Absolutely.
15:51And this can be plugged in into any system, electronic medical record, HRS and so on.
15:57Exactly.
15:58So let's cast the net a little wider now that we've been able to speak about it on a hospital
16:04level.
16:04But we're also trying to look at interoperability on a national health data sort of a platform.
16:12So what do you think would be the best way in which to prove this case for nationwide adoption?
16:20Also being cognizant of the fact that outside of just peninsula, urban versus rural divide, you also have Sabah, you
16:27also have Sarawak as well.
16:29Absolutely.
16:30Luckily, now we have cloud technology.
16:32Sure.
16:32So information can be shared even between Semenanjong and Sabah and Sarawak.
16:38But let's take a smaller example before we go national.
16:44See if you want to implement a regional clinical health record.
16:49So that is the crux of interoperability.
16:53So if you want to do interoperability, something like a regional health care record is something that should be looked
17:01into.
17:01So in order to do that, you need to make sure that you have the capability to do that.
17:08I don't think that's a big issue.
17:10The main thing is to look at patient's consent, governance and trust.
17:16But it can be done.
17:18So it has to start somewhere and show that it works and build from that.
17:25So in the case of the deployment of regional health care record, that's how you get information transferred from hospitals
17:34to clinics.
17:35So patients who are being referred from clinic to hospital, if you have interoperability that way, the care should be
17:43seamless.
17:43The patient from the clinic going to hospitals, the information will be there.
17:48And coupled with digital health ID, that should be seamless.
17:52The technology is already there.
17:53So it's all about execution.
17:55Execution, indeed.
17:56And that also reminds me of, for example, concerning chronic diseases.
18:01Sarawak does not yet have any centres which can provide cancer care.
18:08So it always requires for Sarawakians who are suffering or have just been diagnosed with cancer to actually come over
18:14to Peninsula for their treatment.
18:16So that can, of course, lead to a lot of backlog when it comes.
18:20And backlog every day counts, naturally.
18:23Well, I'd like to actually expand on that.
18:26So for cancer patients, this is something that is very passionate to me because cancer management is exactly what a
18:38coordination solution like MedPlanar does.
18:41And it's available in Malaysia.
18:43Yes, absolutely.
18:44Because to treat cancer patients, you need multiple people involved.
18:49In the Ministry of Health, they are lucky because they're actually practising MDT, multidisciplinary team approach to patient care already.
19:00But they do not have an MDT platform.
19:03Understood.
19:04So that's the missing gap.
19:06Yes.
19:06Having an MDT platform will really scale the number of patients in.
19:10So, in fact, I've actually done this in the UK where we showed that it increases productivity by 700%.
19:20So an MDT plan can be done in three days instead of two weeks because you have a platform for
19:28discussion.
19:29Because not everyone can be available over Zoom at the same time.
19:33Naturally speaking.
19:33Naturally speaking.
19:34We've learned that over the past few years.
19:36Yeah.
19:36And the same with these patients in Sarawak.
19:38A lot of the care plans can already be decided before the patients even move.
19:43Exactly.
19:43So that no time is wasted while you're deciding on a protocol.
19:47Absolutely.
19:48So, Dr. Aizam, as we move to closing out the discussion, I think I'd love to spend a little time
19:54getting your thoughts on what kind of movement do we need when moving forward with digital healthcare,
20:02but especially making sure that no one is left behind, including those who may be, of course, in possession of
20:09older phones or digital devices, or even have lower confidence levels.
20:14This is usually, of course, the elderly, for example, or the disabled.
20:19Yes.
20:20Okay.
20:20So we can look at it in a few ways.
20:24So let's look at one aspect first, like design aspect.
20:28So that's very technical, right?
20:29I think it's quite useful.
20:32So design aspect, for example, they are what we call low-bandwidth technologies.
20:37Okay?
20:37So you just need to be creative.
20:39So like using SMS, right?
20:41So for people, like you mentioned, who do not have updated smartphones, there are a lot of SMSs.
20:49You can use SMS for a lot of things, like appointment reminders, like health reminders, that kind of thing.
20:57The other technology is what we call gradual degradation technology.
21:01What that means is if you have a poor connectivity, right, but you have a smartphone, maybe not so old,
21:09right, but in poor connectivity area, your file and information, important information, can be chosen by developer to be locally
21:18cached inside.
21:21So when there's good connectivity, that can be uploaded to the cloud again.
21:26So the information is not lost.
21:27Yes.
21:28And then another simple technology, not technology per se, but more like design.
21:33So if you have someone who's old, like you said, then you build a feature for next of kin or
21:40carer.
21:40The caregivers, yes.
21:41The caregivers.
21:42Not leaving them out of the picture either, right?
21:44Simple things like that.
21:45So they are designed things that you can do.
21:48And other things will be like making sure that there are multiple channel access to healthcare.
21:54Okay, so those who are digitally less abled, right, we have access for them, do not forget them.
22:03But those with very good digital health access, yes, we provide the latest digital health support that we can for
22:12them so that everyone is included and we can achieve universal care.
22:17Exactly, because of course, Malaysia's entire goal around the healthcare system has been equitable access.
22:24We've done very well, but now it's time to ensure, for example, rural communities and the B40 in particular are
22:30not left behind when it comes to the overall picture.
22:33Absolutely, yeah.
22:35Dr. Azam, thank you so much for the conversation insofar.
22:37And wishing you Ask Hemi and Hemi Health all the best for 2026.
22:41Thank you for inviting me.
22:42Absolutely.
22:43Well, clearly the solution when it comes to digital healthcare access isn't more apps, it's of course better system design
22:50that is cognizant of all of these factors and access which works and tools that people can actually use together
22:56with clear channels of accountability if and when errors occur.
23:01And of course, systems that stay connected much after the patient visit attends.
23:06Get that right and of course, digital health will reduce pressure on hospitals and of course, improve patients' quality of
23:13life.
23:13That's all we have time for today.
23:15Join us next week for more economic analysis and insights.
23:18I'm Tamina Kowstri signing off for now.
23:19Here's to a productive week ahead.
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