The Fifth Physician Advisory Board Meeting of Luye Medical’s New Hongqiao project held in Shanghai

On 29th August, the Physician Advisory Board (PAB) members of Luye Medical’s New Hongqiao project gathered in our new office in Shanghai, conducted three-hour in-depth discussion to go through project status update, and other strategic topics including “private medical service operation under current policy”.

Mr. Liu Dianbo, Chairman and President of Luye Life Sciences Group pointed out that China's medical and healthcare market has presented both opportunities and challenges, therefore The Group is reviewing the positioning of the medical sector and will actively promote the implementation of the new Hongqiao project according the guidance of PAB experts.

Mr. Liu Dianbo, Chairman and President of Luye Life Sciences Group; Ms. Liu Aona, Executive Chairman of Luye Medical Group, Mr. Diao Haipeng, Chairman and CEO of Luye Medical (China), and ten PAB experts and more Luye representatives attended the meeting.

Belmont Private Hospital using AI to deliver a more precise magnetic stimulation treatment for depression

Belmont Private Hospital is partnering with The University of Southern Queensland, Australia to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) model to enhance rTMS therapy for treating depression.

A decade after Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation therapy was declared a new weapon in the fight against depression, researchers at the University of Southern Queensland are planning to use artificial intelligence to improve the procedure. Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) is a safe and non-invasive brain stimulation technique used to treat depression and other mental health disorders, especially in patients who have not responded well to antidepressant medication.

More patients will soon have access to the treatment after it was announced in the latest federal budget rTMS therapy would be added to the Medicare Benefits Scheme.

While the benefits of rTMS are well recognised, Professor Raj Gururajan and his team are working with the Belmont Private Hospital to develop an AI model that can inform treatment decisions by recognising patterns from data collected after previous treatments. A standard course of rTMS includes 20 treatment sessions that last between 20 to 40 minutes per each session.

“The World Health Organisation estimates that depression will be the number one health concern by 2030, therefore improving treatment outcomes and developing new technology to combat depression is fundamental,” Professor Gururajan said.

Professor Gururajan said AI had enormous promise for mental health care and was arguably the most important tool in addressing the growing rate of mental illness and increased demand for mental health services due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“rTMS is very time consuming, therefore expensive, but being able to use AI to facilitate personalised treatment planning and prediction could potentially save both the patient and health systems’ time and money, while improving patient outcomes. We plan to have an initial AI model developed and implemented between 24 to 30 months; our aim is to develop cutting-edge algorithms that will inform psychiatrists on the most appropriate duration of stimulation for an individual patient at the outset of the treatment,” he said.

Belmont Private Hospital, located in Brisbane, is the largest private mental health care provider in Queensland, and the second largest in Australia. In addition to TMS and Electroconvulsive Therapy services already provided, its AU$21m expansion will make Belmont Private the only private hospital in the state to offer continuity of care for adolescents through to older persons’ mental health.

AI for depression

 

Luye Medical International Group Singapore led ICC network focuses on hand hygiene compliance

Across generations of nurses, one can always vividly remember the first lesson on hand hygiene. 

Rows and rows of aspiring nursing students queuing up at the sinks to be observed by their nursing tutors on the proper way to execute the three handwashing techniques – social, antiseptic and surgical hand hygiene

To no one’s surprise, the most basic lesson in nursing school turned out to be the quintessential skill throughout the healthcare practice. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the importance of hand hygiene cannot be further emphasized.  

With this in mind, LMIG Singapore is determined to keep the germs at bay. We partnered nursing leaders of Novena Heart Centre (“NHC”) and OncoCare Cancer Centre (“OCC”) to raise awareness of hand hygiene by appointing Infection Control Coordinators (“ICC”) in each clinic. 

This network of ICCs are the voices on the ground to help others understand and appreciate the importance of practicing proper hand hygiene. The ICCs were also tasked to conduct random audits to ensure that all doctors, nursing and non-nursing staff observed the 7 steps of hand hygiene and 5 moments for hand hygiene. They also assess the clinics’ surrounding to ensure critical touchpoints such as the registration counter, nursing counter and waiting areas had hand rubs placed accessibly, serving as a reminder to staff, patients and visitors to frequently perform hand hygiene. 

The first audit for 2021 concluded in June. Despite some clinics not attaining the target of 90% hand hygiene compliance, we are confident that the ICCs have been doing their utmost to raise hygiene compliance standards. LMIG Singapore CEO, Joelle Lee conducted a post audit briefing for the ICC network on 4 August 2021. She shared with the ICC network on the audit results, areas of improvement and also to obtain feedback from the ICCs on their challenges faced during the audit. 

Many of the ICCs shared that the audit complements the usual practices and their appointment to the role enables them to be the friendly “class monitor” to remind their colleagues on practicing hand hygiene diligently. The ICC network also decided that they will work towards a cross-clinic audit (when Covid-19 restrictions have eased) in time to come. 

To drive home, the importance of hand hygiene, Director of Nursing for OncoCare Cancer Centre, Debbie Lyn ride on the theme, introduced a Hand Hygiene Awareness Programme in July 2021. 

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event, but a habit” shared Debbie Lyn. Together with her team, they came up with an online quiz on hand hygiene and continued to perform random audits throughout the month. To incentivize the staff, those who scored 100% in the quiz were rewarded with a token gift. To top it off, a ‘Hand Hygiene Role Model’ title was awarded to a staff who scored 100% for the online quiz, able to articulate the 7 steps of hand washing and 5 moments for hand washing when randomly tested and pass many rounds of random hand hygiene audit throughout the month. 

Over the course of a month, Staff Nurse Maitri Lau from Mount Elizabeth Novena emerged as champion for this challenge. Joelle Lee was very heartened that the OCC nursing leadership has made hand hygiene messaging fun and rewarding for her staff.

LMIG Singapore will continue to partner and engage the clinics on maintaining a high standard of infection control.