Tapping tech and AI key to bringing down costs: Fullerton Health CEO
The integrated healthcare platform, which started using AI two years ago, is stepping up its usage
[SINGAPORE] Integrated healthcare platform Fullerton Health has a three-pronged approach to its mission – to serve more lives, build up its capacity and give patients offline and online options.
On reaching more patients, its group CEO Ho Kuen Loon told The Business Times: “About three years ago, I set a target to serve about 10 million lives, either through organic or inorganic growth.”
Fullerton Health now serves the markets in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, China, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea.
To build up capacity, the Singapore-headquartered healthcare platform has been on a shopping spree, with the recent acquisition of Indonesia’s largest third-party health administrator, AdMedika Group, in June 2026.
Other acquisitions include The ENT Clinic, one of Singapore’s largest ear, nose and throat specialist practices, which is adding to the platform’s capacity and capability.
The last prong of the mission – to give patients offline and online options – is where technology and artificial intelligence will play a key role for Fullerton Health.
Twofold outcome
“To us, data and AI are not tools, but engines that enable us to make the whole healthcare system more efficient,” said Ho.
Fullerton Health started using using AI selectively in its business two years ago and is gradually stepping up its usage.
For instance, AI is used to read X-rays alongside its radiologists, which boosts efficiency and accuracy, explained Ho. Fullerton Health’s developers also use AI to write code for other functions across the healthcare platform.
A project to use AI to process claims in Vietnam is ongoing, and if this is successful, can be rolled out to the platform’s other markets as well.
“Through technology, the outcome we want is really twofold. One is to improve clinical outcomes and to provide a much-better patient experience; the other is to reduce costs,” said Ho.
The goal is to help manage healthcare costs and ensure it goes below inflation rate, he added. The aim is to keep it below the general inflation rate.
One way to bring down costs is by boosting efficiency, such as by sharing information correctly, noted Ho. When this is done, there would be no need for duplicate tests when patients are passed from one doctor to another within the group. “That’s what we’re trying to build in our own ecosystem, where patients are being taken care of in a seamless manner, rather than by doing duplicate tests.”
The right data structure
For technology and AI to be an engine for Fullerton Health, data is an important fuel for this engine. A key focus is to have the right data structure, and protection for the disparate units of data the healthcare platform has amassed after its many acquisitions over the years.
In the interests of safeguarding the security and privacy of this data, Fullerton Health does not move it across borders; however, the insights that the data can provide at the population level can be meaningful, explained Ho. “But AI without the right data means nothing, so we also have to structure the data.”
Data is often a mess, with the information populating different fields and categories; in medicine, particularly, the fact that a given type of drug can go by different names also complicates matters.
Cleaning up the data and structuring it will be key for Fullerton Health to make tech and AI the engine for growth, said Ho.
He cited two key concerns, one being technology and the other, people. These are the enablers that will take Fullerton Health to the next level. Keeping pace with demand requires the healthcare platform to use technology efficiently, and to recruit and train people.
“At the end of the day, everything we do is to put the patient in the centre. As long as we have that focus, whatever we do through technology, everything is really to try and make the journey more seamless and accessible,” he added.
