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Digital health across Asia-Pacific is moving out of its experimentation phase, as rapid pilots give way to scaled deployments, tighter governance, and growing pressure on providers and vendors to demonstrate measurable clinical and operational value.
Mobihealth News gathered comments from clinicians and health IT innovators across the region on their views on which digital health trends will carry through into 2026 and which new shifts are likely to define the year ahead.
Dr Anindita Santosa, CEO, AIGP Health
Singapore
In Singapore, digitisation of healthcare workflows will continue in 2026, but the focus is shifting. It's no longer about putting systems in place; it's about making them actually useful to clinicians. Interoperability, telehealth, and data sharing will remain priorities, but tolerance for clunky, passive tools is wearing thin.
What's emerging is a demand for intelligent, action-oriented systems. Clinicians want technology that synthesises information, highlights risk, and supports decisions in real time — not more dashboards to scroll through. In 2026, the winners won't be the most technically impressive platforms, but those that fit naturally into clinical practice and reduce cognitive load instead of adding to it.
At AIGP Health, AI isn't an add-on; it's the foundation. In the coming year, our focus is on scaling clinician-built, agentic AI that supports real diagnostic and workflow decisions, not just documentation.
Dr Raymond Choy, CEO, Heydoc Health
Malaysia
In 2026, in my opinion, the most significant continuing trend in Malaysia and Southeast Asia will be the acceleration toward digital-first, value-based healthcare, particularly in primary care, chronic disease management, and outpatient services. Telehealth, e-prescribing, and pharmacy integration will further mature, while new momentum will come from subscription-based care models, medication price transparency, and data-driven cost containment driven by regulatory and payer pressures.
At Heydoc Health, our AI strategy in 2026 is focused on real-world deployment rather than experimentation. We are embedding AI into clinical workflows, medication pricing intelligence, care orchestration, and operational automation to augment clinicians, improve productivity, and reduce system inefficiencies.
Dr Roman Rajek, co-founder, Back2U
Australia
In Australia, we'll see a shift from telehealth as video GP towards genuinely connected, on-demand care models. The trend that will continue is using digital tools to keep people out of EDs and waiting rooms and bringing allied health safely to where pain actually happens – homes, workplaces, sporting fields – in person.
Dr Gurpreet Singh, founder, CEO, Respiree
Singapore
Largely, the use of AI in healthcare will continue to see more adoption and traction in 2026. This would likely not move. What we would also see is acceleration in the use of more out-of-hospital monitoring. We see that in some of the policy changes in the United States on the use of remote monitoring reimbursements. Definitely, the coupling of AI and out-of-hospital monitoring is synergistic.
Anna Gelling, Chief Technology Officer, Hireup
Australia
As we look to 2026, one of the biggest shifts in health technology is happening outside hospitals and clinics – at home. Across disability and aged care, digital health is enabling care to become more decentralised, supporting people to remain independent and in control in their own home.
But this only works if technology is designed around individuals, not systems. Too often, health tech prioritises efficiency over lived experience. The real opportunity lies in platforms that make care more personalised and flexible, giving people choice over when care happens, who delivers it, and how it fits into their lives.
At the same time, expectations around how people find and engage with care are changing. As conversational interfaces and agentic AI become more embedded in everyday decision-making, people want intuitive guidance rather than rigid pathways. AI will be central to this future, but only if trust and transparency are built in from the start.
Matthew Galetto, founder, CEO, MediRecords
Australia
Cybersecurity will remain a major driver of procurement decisions, accelerating the shift toward secure, cloud-first platforms. At the same time, traditional consumer-led pathways into primary care are breaking down. As health services become more vertically integrated, they are increasingly defining their own technical requirements, particularly around digital front doors that reflect their specific care models and enable direct patient engagement.
This shift is driving consolidation, with providers favouring fewer, more capable platforms over fragmented systems. While government interoperability initiatives will continue to progress, their real-world impact is often constrained by timing, with vertically integrated service models moving faster and effectively setting the pace ahead of policy-led change.
In 2026, MediRecords is progressing its multi-agent AI strategy through MediRecords Evolve, focusing on improving efficiency and data quality across clinical and administrative workflows. Several additional AI agents are already in development, each designed to operate within MediRecords as the patient system of record, using trusted clinical data to automate time-intensive tasks and reduce administrative burden for practices.
Abhijeet Waykar, CEO, PredicTx Health
Australia
In Australia, a key trend continuing into 2026 is the shift from exploratory AI to clinically governed, regulator-ready AI, particularly in decision support. Health systems are increasingly focused on evidence, safety, and integration into real workflows, rather than standalone pilots. A growing trend we'll see is AI moving from administrative optimisation into core clinical decisions, especially in oncology, imaging, and chronic disease management.
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Some of the responses have been edited for brevity.
