Digital Health Research and Innovation
In this IR4.0 era, digital health has the potential to transform medical fields and address challenges in an innovative way. In parallel with these growing demands of technology literacy and fluency, there is a growing recognition that conventional clinical research should be expanded into this territory. What is currently lacking can be completed via systematically engaging with field experts, training of accredited staff and allocating resources to boost these types of initiatives.
Therefore, Digital Health Research and Innovation (DHRi) Unit aims to identify, address, explore, and eventually apply these disruptive digital health solutions into the real world. It is hard to predict the trajectory of a digital health project, especially the outcome and side effects. With this unit as a platform, we strive to ensure safe ethical conduct of digital health research while assisting the growth of technologies.
By incorporating active considerations and good clinical practice into the digital health research framework, DHRi may well become a unique source of innovation and creativity; generating valuable research outputs to the Ministry of Health, Malaysia.
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InvestigatorsHighlight
Head, Digital Health Research & Innovation (DHRi)
Email: kblaw@crc.moh.gov.my
DPharm, MSc
Areas of interest: Medical Artificial Intelligence (AI), Clinical Research Project Management, Statistical Modelling and Analysis, Infectious Disease Modelling, Digital Health Research and Innovation
Awards and achievements:
- Second Best Innovation, Anugerah Inovasi Sektor Awam (AINSA), 2023
- Ahli Mangku Negara (A.M.N.), 2023
- Winner, Technology category, MOH Innovation Award (AIKKM), 2022
- Dr. Wu Lien-Teh Best Poster Award (First runner-up) 15th NCCR, 2022
- Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang (APC) 2018
- Dr. Wu Lien-Teh Best Poster Award (Consolation), NCCR, 2018
- Dr. Wu Lien-Teh Young Investigator Award (Merit), NCCR, 2017
- Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang (APC) 2011
William Law joined the Institute for Clinical Research in 2010 to spearhead the development of the country’s first early phase clinical trial facility. He graduated from the University of Science Malaysia (USM) with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in 2006 and completed his Master of Science (MSc) in statistics from Universiti Malaya in 2017. Besides, he was also trained in infectious disease modelling by Imperial College London in 2019 and digital health transformation in health care by Columbia Business School in 2023, certified medical translation and so on. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was assigned by the Ministry of Health to develop mathematical models that can predict the COVID-19 burden under the nationwide movement control order. He also successfully predicted the number of lives saved by Malaysia’s vaccination program in 2022. Further, his research team developed the country’s first online AI-screening solution to detect COVID-19 infection via cough sound recordings and was awarded the second-best health innovation at the National Public Sectors Innovation Award (AINSA) in 2023. William is passionate to transform health care services with novel digital health innovations and research.
Research Highlights
- Detecting infectious diseases with cough sounds and AI
The use of cough sounds as a diagnostic marker to detect different respiratory diseases has gained momentum in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper details the strategy and framework to develop an accurate & sustainable CNN model that can be used to detect COVID-19 infection in Malaysia. Click the link for more details: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibmed.2023.100129
- Herd immunity model
The conventional susceptible-infectious-recovered (SIR) model fails to incorporate the effect of herd immunity in reducing the risk of infection in a population by a novel infection, hence projecting a faster and higher infection spread. The new mechanistic model demonstrates how the dynamic of infection could change by the formation of herd immunity, either naturally or induced by vaccination program. Click the link for more details: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-00013-2
Recent Publications
Medical Officer, Digital Health Research & Innovation (DHRi)
Email: kuanpx@crc.moh.gov.my
MD (UNIMAS), MScCT (Edinburgh)
Areas of interest: Digital Health and Clinical Trials focusing on Cardiovascular, Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, and Infectious Diseases
Awards and achievements:
- High Impact Researcher Award 2023
- Second Best Innovation, Anugerah Inovasi Sektor Awam (AINSA) 2023
- NUHS-NUH Healthcare AI Leadership Executive Programme 2022
- Winner, Technology Category, MOH Innovation Award (AIKKM) 2022
- Second Runner-up, Dr. Wu Lien-Teh Young Investigator Award, NCCR 2020
- Excellent Service Award 2018
Dr. Kuan is one of the founding members of DHRi, ICR which was established in 2020. She graduated from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) with a Medical Degree (MD) in 2012 and completed her Masters of Science in Clinical Trials (MScCT) from The University of Edinburgh in 2021. She has joined the Clinical Research Centre (CRC) family since 2014 and has experience working in both Institute for Clinical Research (ICR) and CRC networks (East and West Malaysia), including being a co-investigator for Phase 1B clinical trials. She is a Cochrane member actively involved in voluntary translation works from English to Bahasa Malaysia and elected as Asia Pacific Heart Rhythm Society (APHRS) Digital Health Committee Member 2024 from Malaysia. She aspires to integrate the use of digital technology into clinical trials for future health innovation.
Research Highlights
Efficacy of telemedicine for the management of cardiovascular disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis- widely cited paper published in The Lancet Digital Health. Refer link for more details: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00124-8
Recent Publications
Implementation of Recommendations on the Use of Corticosteroids in Severe COVID-19
*Kuan Pei Xuan (Listed as ISARIC Clinical Characterization Group Authors)
