Healthcare systems face a shared challenge: delivering more accessible, efficient and patient-centred care amid growing demand and workforce pressures.
Meeting that challenge requires more than technology. It means rethinking where care happens, how expertise is shared and how hospitals connect with patients and communities.
At M360 ASEAN 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, healthcare leaders, clinicians, policymakers, mobile operators and technology partners came together to explore what this could look like in practice.
One message stood out: the next phase of healthcare transformation is about connecting capabilities around the patient.
Three themes shaping the next generation of connected healthcare
Care beyond the hospital
Using connected care, remote monitoring and virtual models to bring healthcare closer to patients.
Expertise without borders
Using advanced connectivity, XR and remote collaboration to bring specialist knowledge to where it is needed.
From pilots to scale
Creating the infrastructure, governance and ecosystem collaboration needed to turn successful trials into sustainable healthcare services.
The hospital remains central to healthcare delivery, but increasingly as part of a wider ecosystem spanning hospitals, clinics, communities and homes.
Breaking down silos to scale healthcares innovation
Connected healthcare cannot scale while healthcare providers, technology companies and industry partners work in isolation. Terence Wong, Paresh Modi , Akansha Sharma of GSMA, and Brian O’Connor of GHC ( Global Health Connector) highlighted the need to bring healthcare, government, mobile and technology ecosystems together around real clinical and operational challenges, moving innovation beyond pilots into everyday care.
Malaysia is already taking steps in this direction. Mahesh Appannan of the Ministry of Health Malaysia outlined the shift from fragmented systems towards a more unified, person-centric digital ecosystem, where health information can move securely with the individual across providers.
Extending care beyond hospital walls
Connected healthcare can help healthcare systems extend services into communities and homes.
Dr Mohd Arif Adenan of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) highlighted the importance of digital inclusion, trusted governance and last-mile infrastructure. Malaysia’s NADI initiative combines community hubs, connectivity and trained personnel to support screening, monitoring and telehealth in underserved communities.
For healthcare leaders, this raises an important question: which elements of care genuinely need to happen inside a hospital?
Remote monitoring, virtual wards and hospital-at-home models can bring appropriate care closer to patients while helping healthcare systems use capacity and clinical resources more effectively.
Bringing specialist expertise to the point of care
M360 ASEAN showcased how connectivity can help healthcare systems overcome geographical and specialist workforce constraints.
Assoc. Prof. Dr Adli Azam Mohammad Razi of Gleneagles Hospitals Malaysia shared his experience of performing Malaysia’s first robotic cardiac surgery without a physical proctor present. Live streaming and augmented reality enabled an expert in Australia to provide remote guidance, demonstrating how expertise can travel instead of the expert.
Similarly, Professor Shaik Farid Abdull Wahab of Hospital Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (HoSZA) showed how mixed reality can enable specialists to remotely guide clinicians performing ultrasound scans, helping address situations where equipment is available but specialist expertise is not.
The same principle applies to education. Prof David J. O’Regan of HoloMedicine Malaysia / Black Belt Academy of Surgical Skills highlighted how immersive 3D technologies, XR and HoloMedicine can transform medical training and allow specialist knowledge to be shared across institutions and geographies.
Building the foundation for intelligent healthcare
These new models of care depend on strong digital foundations.
Prof. Dr Mohd Zulkiflee demonstrated how a mature EMR-enabled hospital ecosystem can support telemedicine, virtual wards and even real-time surgical broadcasting across borders for education and clinical collaboration.
Dr Yujia Gao of the National University Health System (NUHS), Singapore described the evolution from Connected Health to Integrated Health and ultimately Intelligent Health, where connected systems, real-time data and AI enable increasingly predictive and personalised care. In this future, 5G and eventually 6G can form part of the digital fabric supporting healthcare delivery.
For CIOs, CTOs and transformation leaders, the question is therefore not simply whether a technology works, but how it fits into the wider healthcare architecture.
Using AI to redesign healthcare
Dr Keren Priyadarshini of AWS highlighted the potential of digital twins and custom AI models to simulate hospital environments and workflows, helping healthcare organisations identify bottlenecks, test changes and design services around patient needs.
The opportunity for AI is not simply to automate existing processes, but to help healthcare systems redesign how care is delivered.
Creating trust and enabling scale
Innovation also depends on trust. Maurice Tan of Singapore’s Ministry of Health Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT) highlighted the interdependence of providers, patients, payers, pharmaceutical companies, technology platforms and regulators.
Transparent governance across technology, services and data is essential to enable innovation while protecting privacy, security and patient trust. Interoperability, cybersecurity, data governance and regulation must be designed in from the start.
Connectivity as an enabler of healthcare outcomes
For mobile operators, the opportunity is not simply to provide connectivity, but to understand the clinical and operational challenges healthcare systems are trying to solve.
Dr Masdiana Sulaiman of CelcomDigi highlighted the role of telcos in providing the secure, reliable connectivity underpinning advanced healthcare applications and connecting experts with patients regardless of location.
Ultimately, the value of connectivity is measured by what it enables healthcare systems to achieve.
From pilots to healthcare at scale
The technologies showcased at M360 ASEAN demonstrate what connected healthcare can enable. The next challenge is turning successful pilots into solutions that work at scale.
That means integrating with clinical workflows and existing systems, building in interoperability, security and trusted governance, and demonstrating sustainable clinical and operational value.
Through the Connected Health & Community Care Accelerator (CHACCA), GSMA Foundry brings together healthcare organisations, clinicians, mobile operators, technology partners and policymakers to help address these barriers and accelerate real-world deployment.
From XR surgical training and remote specialist support to hospital-at-home, AI-enabled care and smart hospitals, the focus is on practical use cases that can improve access, make better use of clinical resources and deliver better patient outcomes.
Convene → Deploy → Scale.
The opportunity is bigger than the hospital. It is about creating a connected healthcare ecosystem where expertise, data and care can reach patients across hospitals, clinics, communities and homes.
Discover GSMA Foundry Connected Healthcare, explore our latest work and find out how to get involved.
Watch media interviews