GPConnect is an integrated IT system designed by general practitioners (GPs) for general practitioners in Singapore. It comprises a clinic management system (CMS) and an electronic medical records (EMR) solution. The CMS supports GPs and their clinic assistants in their daily clinic operations from patient registration, consultation, medicine dispensation and billing, while the EMR helps GPs to store their medical records electronically, making it easier for retrieval and analysis, and freeing up physical storage space.
As of February 2020, more than 200 GP clinics have gone live and enjoying its benefits.
Benefits to GPs and Patients
As an IT enabler, GPConnect helps GPs to be more efficient in their daily work, allowing them to spend more time on their patients.
1. Direct links to many national systems
GPConnect has direct links to many of MOH's care schemes, such as the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS), Chronic Disease Management Programme (CDMP), and Screen for Life (SFL). These links enables the automation to reduce the work load of GP's claims submissions. GPConnect also connects to other national systems of NEHR, Communicable Disease Live and EnhaNced Surveillance (CDLENS) and National Immunisation Registry (NIR). This facilitate the seamless exchange of relevant clinical information between GPs and healthcare providers, improving overall continuity of care and reduction of duplicate tests.
GPConnect has the ability to centrally deploy updates to all of its systems, e.g. whenever MOH updates their schemes, the features of GPConnect will be timely updated to support all subscribing GP's participation in the schemes. Since its introduction in Feb 2017, it has been enhanced with the following:
- Integration with two major private lab providers for electronic results, CDLENS and NIR
- Application enhancements to support SFL and Primary Care Network (PCN) submissions.
2. Patient safety
GPConnect provides clinical decision support, such as customisable alerts for allergy and drug interactions. Electronic prescription of medication also helps to improve dispensation accuracy.
3. Supporting one shared patient record
GPConnect seamlessly transmits relevant patient data to the NEHR, helping patients to build a longitudinal medical history for their continuity of care across different healthcare settings.
How to join
To encourage digitisation which has a host of benefits, the GPConnect solution comes bundled with net of grant subscription*, End User Computing (EUC) support and a single helpdesk to support both software and hardware issues. IHiS also provides training and support, including onsite support during the go-live day, to support a smoother on-boarding journey. For GPs who want to learn more about GPConnect, please email us at GPIT@ihis.com.sg.
*Net of grant subscription refers to the amount you pay after the grant provided by MOH.
Testimonials
As a system funded by MOH and managed by IHiS, Singapore’s HeathTech agency, the GPConnect team offers an unprecedented amount of support from onboarding to post-live. Read on below to see what some licensees who have made the switch have to say.
“Finishing up implementation of GPConnect clinic management system for O2 Medical Clinic with the talented officers from IHiS and Accenture. With its links to many national systems, GPConnect facilitates the seamless exchange of relevant clinical information between our clinic and other healthcare providers across the nation. This improves the efficiency of our clinic while ensuring an integrated continuum of our patient care.”
Dr. Sam Toh, O2 Clinic
“With GPConnect, I find that productivity has increased, and less time is needed to access or file records. I’m very happy that I chose to digitise with GPConnect. My staff are too, as they are now can do their work more efficiently. In fact, even if I wanted to go back to paper records now, I don’t think they would allow me to.”
Dr Lawrence Wong, Wong Clinic
“I was on a pen and paper previously, and was running out of physical storage space. So when I learned about GPConnect and its benefits, it was too attractive to turn down. Just do it. It's tough at the start but it's worth doing at the end. Thanks to the wonderful staff at IHiS for their support… without them, it would have been very difficult.”
Dr Chia Hiang Kiat, National Clinic
Image caption: Our users of the GPConnect System at Frontier Medical Associates Jurong West
