"This role had all the parts that I liked doing— interacting with users, testing and documentation,” explained Lynn Masillamoni, who was fresh out of university when asked why she wanted to become a Systems Analyst in Synapxe.
A role in the HealthTech industry and public healthcare sector has become very fulfilling, allowing Lynn to make a positive impact on many people’s lives with her knowledge and skills. Having studied Computer Science, Lynn is currently in the Next Generation Electronic Medical Record (NGEMR) team, focusing on enhancing the medication workflow processes for the public healthcare institutions in Singapore.
Lynn shares her insights below, including what she does, the skills needed, and what to expect in this impactful role.
The road to HealthTech
I initially explored software development but was later drawn to this role. A job with purpose and real impact on people’s lives is very important to me, because it keeps me going and helps me get through challenging times at work. For example, as part of the team, I helped to create a new pharmacy record in the system that automatically verifies hypersensitivity medication*.
The verification process ensures that there are no issues with the medication order placed for the patient, such as checking that the medication being ordered has no adverse reaction with the patient's existing prescriptions, and that the dosage is appropriate. Now, pharmacists do not need to manually verify medication orders, as the system will do it automatically for them.
This streamlines the process as it allows nurses to administer the medication immediately after the medication order has been placed. The result is reduced workload for both pharmacists and nurses, while patients receive medications faster.
*Hypersensitivity medication is used in the event of a hypersensitivity reaction during chemotherapy treatment.
Ensuring seamless operations in healthcare systems
Each day, I focus on tasks that contribute to a larger purpose: ensuring seamless operations. While it takes continuous effort to keep everything running smoothly, challenges may still arise. Alsongside my team, I proactively identify and address issues, implement fixes, and roll out system improvements, with an aim of creating an environment where clinicians can work more efficiently. I also collaborate closely with senior colleagues to gather their insights, which help me to better understand how to tackle challenges effectively.
Go-live transitions in action
Another exciting part of my role involves planning and supporting “go-lives”—the big moment when systems such as NGEMR officially start operations in a new hospital or healthcare institution, or when other interconnected systems are introduced. It is a nerve-wracking process, especially on D-day, as healthcare institutions are very important facilities and we need to make sure that patient care services are not interrupted!
The NGEMR group consist of many tech teams that each specialises in a particular function, since the NGEMR is a complex system that connects and integrates with a myriad of systems crucial to hospital operations These include the laboratory, inpatient, radiology, community, medication-related systems and more. Each team starts with pre-assessment, procurement and requirement gathering—months, and sometimes years, ahead of time.
We meet with subject matter experts, clinicians, analysts, and more from Singapore’s healthcare clusters (e.g. National Healthcare Group, National University Health Systems, etc) to understand the respective needs and expectations to kick off the preparation process.
Next, we move on to configuring, designing, and building the system alongside rigorous testing to ensure that it meets requirements.
The real pressure comes during cut-over nights (the night before “go-live”)—when the system is switched over from the old one to NGEMR. Most of the time, there will be a "Command Centre" at the institution to house the technical support team, which could number from 5 for a small-scale deployment to 300 staff working overnight for a major hospital deployment, doing checks and tackling urgent issues that crop up. All to ensure that months of our hard work come to fruition.
In the ideal scenario, the frantic activity is mainly at the backend, and it is just business as usual for doctors and nurses at the frontline and the patients who come to seek treatment.
After rollout, it is not uncommon to see our Systems Analysts walking the grounds at hospitals and polyclinics, providing on-the-ground support to help users from the healthcare institutions navigate the new system that we’ve carefully developed and rolled out.
What skills are needed?
- Problem-solving, attention to detail, critical thinking, and analytical skills: To understand, analyse and troubleshoot issues raised and propose effective solutions.
- Communication and collaboration skills: A lot of the time, we have to work across teams to resolve issues, so strong communication and collaboration skills are helpful. We also need to work closely with doctors, nurses, clinicians and healthcare administrators and provide updates on the issues raised, explain the root cause, and suggest possible solutions or workarounds.
In my time as a systems analyst, I would say that constant learning is expected because the healthcare tech systems are important and complex and there are many things to learn, so the initial learning curve is quite steep.
Personally, I make it a point to do my best to learn. When I initially joined, my team was very supportive—they assigned me simpler tasks that were within my capabilities. As they observed my progress, they began to give me more challenging tasks. They were always available to answer my questions and help resolve any issues that came up.
Share a fun fact with us!
The strangest thing I’ve ever searched on Google was looking up the different Android version names to see which version of Android I should use when creating Android apps in university. It was funny to see "KitKat," "Oreo," and "Pie" as version names. This was a foreshadowing of my time as a systems analyst, where there are lots of abbreviations and technical jargon to wrap my head around!
