KUALA LUMPUR – A Health Ministry official has urged for more updated legislation to address technological advancements in the healthcare sector.
The ministry’s digital health department director Dr Maheshwara Rao Appannan said new laws to cater to the complexities of healthcare digitalisation is needed to ensure “safeguard rails” amid the progress of digital solutions.
“Currently, the Health Ministry has the Telemedicine Act 1997, the Medical Act 1971, the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988. These are all old acts.
“Now, when we want to start moving into (implementing) latest technologies, we need to start having newer regulations that follow technological eras,” he said at the International Regulatory Conference (IRC) 2025, here, today.
Maheshwara was speaking as a panelist on the forum titled Bridging Healthcare Gaps: Technology Adoption for Inclusive Healthcare Access.
While the Health Ministry is in the midst of forming a Digital Health Act, Maheshwara said the ministry’s staffers have been relying on and strictly following the government’s data governance guidelines, besides other relevant laws under the Digital Ministry.
“The (tabling) of the Digital Health Act will take some time. In the meantime, it is important for us (Health Ministry) to safeguard whatever information that we have.
“However, (such safeguard measures) does not and should not impede our growth towards digitalisation,” he stressed, noting that the Hippocratic Oath undertaken by medical professionals outlines patient data protection as part of its pledge to respect confidentiality.
When asked about other obstacles the government has faced in its quest to digitalise the healthcare field, Maheshwara acknowledged that the journey has not been a smooth one, nor is it likely to get any easier.
Besides waiting for updated regulations, another challenge is managing healthcare practitioners, who have to adapt to changes in patients’ behaviours over the course of time.
“We need to ensure that we start solidifying digital trust among the people living in Malaysia. Since they’re our main customers, they have to believe in whatever we’re doing,” he said.
Other panellists at the session were Dr Rizwan Hamid, the chief governance and quality officer for the King’s College Hospital London in Jeddah and president of the Mayo Clinic Platform US, Dr John Halamka, who joined the discussion virtually.
The session was moderated by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s (MCMC) chief industry and development officer, Muhammad Razali Anuar.
Today marks the second and final day of the IRC, hosted by MCMC, as a global forum bringing together regulators, industry leaders and experts to explore the theme ‘Leaping into the Quantum Frontier: Regulation and Innovation in the Tech Era’. – January 8, 2025