KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 – The Selangor state government said it will implement new ideas in public health interventions through the Selangor Health Partnership Programme 2023 (SELHEP2023).
Held under the management of the state’s Public Health Standing Committee and the Selangor Public Health Advisory Council (SelPHAC), SELHEP2023 aims to explore potential collaborations with various institutions in Malaysia, who were invited to submit proposals for improving the state’s health programmes for 2023.
From 341 expressions of interest, 125 participants had successfully submitted their proposals., 35 of them had been shortlisted and invited for an in-person pitching session that was held on 24 and 25 November 2022 at iSpace, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur in front of a jury panel.
Comprising non-governmental organisations, academics, research institutions and the private sector, the finalists had delivered their ideas based on the eight key health priorities for 2023: mental health, cervical cancer, health aging, non-communicable disease risk factors, early childhood nutrition, health literacy, tuberculosis, as well as drug use and addiction.
The execution of SELHEP2023 is also based on the World Health Organization’s global strategy to strengthen health systems through the application of digital health technologies for consumers, health professionals, health care providers and industry.
To realise this mission, Selangkah as Selangor’s official digital platform will act as the integration platform for the health interventions proposed through SELHEP2023.
“We hope that initiatives like this will open more doors so that even more high-impact ideas can be discovered,” said Dr Helmi Zakariah, Selangkah Ventures Sdn Bhd’s chief information Technology and one of the panel members, in a statement last Saturday.
The appointment of Selangkah as SELHEP2023’s digital platform is justified based on its expertise and experience in handling data digitisation through previous Selangor public health programs including the Vaksin Selangor (SelVAX), Targeted Community Screening for Covid-19, Selangor Saring, and Anak Selangor Anak Sihat (ASAS).
“We have had a high number of successful welfare and health care programmes deployed by the State, but invaluable data that helps establish baselines, benchmarks and analytics had not been collated comprehensively,” said Selangkah Ventures director and chief operating officer S. Satyakumar.
“Digitalisation of these programs through Selangkah will address this void and also benefit future programs, gearing to be better targeted and optimised.”
Selangkah’s role in this matter was also stressed on by Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari in his Selangor Budget 2023 announcement recently. As a standardisation measure under a sole digitalisation platform, public health programmes that have yet to be digitalised will be integrated into the Selangkah app.
Additionally, Selangkah played its part as the secretariat of SELHEP2023. Selangkah was given the responsibility and trust to plan and conduct its promotional campaign, gather and sort the proposal submissions, as well as organise its live pitching sessions.
With the strategies and digital approach introduced through SELHEP2023, it is hoped that improvements in the health sector can be implemented effectively and ultimately generate a high level of impact to the well-being of Selangorians.
