Hello everyone,
I just got back from the Philippines (landed yesterday) and since I have some spare time now, I thought I’ll provide a quick update on both events.
The General Hospital Senate in Malaysia was a great session for me, I had several people coming to me after my presentation (on Analytic and Big Data) to discuss and chat about the topic, which is a good sign as people in Asia usually shy away such face-to-face discussions even if they are very interested in the topic.
Also, given that this is not a pure Healthcare IT conference, I was able to utilise the opportunity to gain new knowledge from other speakers on topics that were not familiar to me (e.g. there were two lawyers sharing insights on how merger and acquisition in healthcare works).
The only unfortunate aspect of this conference was that I had to fly back to Singapore (as I have reservist duties the next day) and missed the afternoon session of day 1 as well as day 2 of the conference.
For Digital Life Congress in Philippines, I had to say that it is not the typical Philippines-style conference cum exhibition I was accustomed to as there were definitely more order (control) to the entire congress.
For the conference , I missed a few of the earlier sessions as I flew in on the morning of the healthcare track but I was quite impressed with some of the presentation that took place in the afternoon. The topics presented were pretty good and insightful.
Thankfully, I was able to deliver my presentation without glitch (the lack of sleep, accumulated over weeks had not set-in yet) and similarly, received lots of queries after the presentation so I am really glad.
For the exhibition, visitors-traffic was moderate (which is not the norm for Philippines exhibition) but I was told its due to Typhoon Haiyan (or Typhoon Yolanda as they call it in the Philippines) where majority of the country’s medical professionals are being despatched to disaster-hit areas to provide assistance. I could also sense ‘lesser joy’ and this definitely differs from the norm of my experiences in this country.
For both conferences, I got to meet new people as well as catch-up with old friends, this is honestly, the best part there is in attending conferences.
While I wish I could say that I am winding down for the holidays, I would still be jetting off in the rest of November and December., however, that is again, “another topic for another day”.
BinaryHealthCare (BNHC) 