OPENING ADDRESS BY MDM RAHAYU MAHZAM, MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION & MINISTRY OF HEALTH, AT NUHS AVBC SYMPOSIUM 2026 ON TUESDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 2026

Professor Yeoh Khay Guan, Chief Executive, National University Health System (NUHS)
Distinguished guests and colleagues
Ladies and gentlemen

1       Good morning. I am delighted to join you at the NUHS Appropriate and Value-Based Care Symposium 2026. Today marks an important milestone as NUHS celebrates a decade of its value-based healthcare journey. It is an opportunity to reflect on what we have learnt over the past ten years, and how we can continue building a healthcare system that delivers better outcomes for every patient.

2           Ten years ago, NUHS embarked on its Value-Driven Outcomes journey with a simple but powerful question: “How do we know if the care we provide is truly making a difference in our patients’ lives?” This question transformed the way we think about healthcare, shifting the focus from measuring what we do to understanding whether our care actually improves patients' lives. What began as a cluster initiative has since contributed to Singapore’s broader journey towards Appropriate and Value-Based Care, or AVBC.

3       This aspiration was championed by pioneers such as Professor John Eu-Li Wong, who drove the cluster’s early adoption of value-based care with a focus on outcomes, quality and sustainability.

What a decade has taught us

4       Over the past decade, we have learnt several important lessons.

5       The first is that value-based healthcare is not simply a framework or a measurement system. It is a mindset shift reflected in the decisions healthcare professionals make every day. Every consultation, every investigation, every treatment plan and every conversation with a patient is an opportunity to ask not only, "What is the matter?" but also, "What matters most to this patient?". Sometimes, that means spending some extra minutes to understand a patient's goals, concerns and preferences. These may seem like small acts, but together they define the value of the care we provide.

6       Second, we have learnt that patients recognise value differently from healthcare providers. Beyond clinical outcomes, patients also care about whether they can return to work, spend time with their families, remain independent, or simply enjoy a better quality of life. This is why the use of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures, or PROMs, is critical. PROMs allow us to understand the value of healthcare through the lens of our patients, providing insights beyond what clinical indicators alone can reveal. They help us move beyond delivering more care, to delivering the right care.

7       Earlier, we learnt about a young stroke survivor whose recovery appeared successful from a clinical perspective. Yet PROMs revealed ongoing struggles with sleep and emotional wellbeing that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. Those insights allowed the care team to provide more holistic support. It is a powerful reminder that success is measured not only by treating disease, but by helping people live well.

8       Finally, this journey has shown us that delivering value is a team effort. Healthcare is increasingly complex. Good quality outcomes depend on doctors, nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals, administrators and community partners working seamlessly throughout the patient's journey. We see this in initiatives such as the NUHS@Home, where patients receive good care in the comfort of their homes, supported by their care teams.

9           For one mother recovering from treatment related to a bone marrow transplant, being able to receive part of her care at home allowed her to remain close to her family during a challenging period. Being surrounded by loved ones and maintaining a sense of normalcy can make a real difference to recovery and wellbeing. Such examples remind us that value lies not in where care is delivered, but whether patients receive the right care, at the right time, and in the right place.

Supporting Singapore's Healthcare Transformation

10     These lessons align closely with Singapore's broader healthcare transformation. As our population ages and healthcare needs become more complex, our challenge is no longer simply to provide more care, but better care. Care that is high quality, integrated, sustainable and of value.

11     The principles of AVBC are aligned with Singapore’s broader healthcare transformation agendas on prevention, population health, healthy ageing and care closer to home. AVBC provides an important framework to ensure that care remains patient-centred, outcomes-focused and sustainable. In practice, this means delivering more care closer to home through stronger partnerships and harnessing digital technologies responsibly to improve care coordination, supporting clinical decision-making and empowering patients to take greater ownership of their health.

12        Under the leadership of Professor Yeoh, initiatives such as the NUHS’ One Care Plan and the Appropriate Care (Apt Care) Programme demonstrate how AVBC can improve coordination, reduce unnecessary interventions and deliver more appropriate and evidence-based care. As one caregiver shared, what mattered most was having care that was easy to navigate, with unnecessary trips, clearer information and a trusted point of contact. Her experience reminds us that patients experience healthcare as one continuous journey. Our responsibility is to make that journey as coordinated, meaningful and effective as possible.

The Road Ahead: Scaling What Matters

(I)            National Patient-Reported Outcome Measures

13     Many initiatives pioneered across our healthcare clusters have informed wider practices across the healthcare system. These experiences have contributed to national learning, influenced clinical practice, and provided valuable insights for healthcare transformation across Singapore.

14       One of the key priorities under AVBC is the use of PROMs. Working closely with all three healthcare clusters, MOH is advancing the adoption of PROMs across the healthcare system. PROMs will complement traditional clinical indicators by systematically capturing patients' perspectives on healthcare.

15     For patients, this means their voices will become part of how we evaluate and improve care. When patients tell us something is not working, we will have the information to respond more intently. For clinicians and care teams, PROMs provide valuable insights into patients’ recovery even after they leave our care, enabling continuous learning and improvement across the system. Together, these efforts will strengthen what you already do best. That is to deliver the best possible care for every patient.

16     Embedding PROMs into everyday clinical practice will require commitment from all of us. I am confident that the expertise and dedication in this room will make this national programme a success and a model for us to scale what works.

(II)          Sharing Best Practices Across the Healthcare System

17     If the first decade was about demonstrating what is possible, the next decade must be about making it standard practice. We must move from pockets of excellence to system-wide capability by embedding AVBC principles into how we train our workforce, redesign care pathways, adopt innovation, and measure the outcomes that matter most to patients.

18     Achieving this requires all of us to work together. Each healthcare cluster has developed valuable innovations and expertise. By learning from one another, sharing best practices, and scaling what works, we can accelerate improvement across the healthcare system.

19     Hence, I am heartened to witness the launch of the “Implementing Value-Based Healthcare at NUHS” and the “NUHS Clinical Outcomes Book”. These publications capture a decade of learning, innovation, and collaboration, and provide valuable insights across our healthcare system.

Closing

20        As we reflect on the past decade, we can be encouraged by what is possible when we focus on what truly matters to patients. By measuring outcomes that matter, learning from experience and continually improving care delivery, we have taken important steps towards a healthcare system that delivers greater value for every patient, through care that achieves better outcomes while upholding safety, quality, and responsible steward ship of healthcare resources.

21     I would like to thank the clinicians, nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals, administrators and partners whose dedication has made this journey possible. Your professionalism, compassion, commitment to innovation and collaboration have made a meaningful difference to the lives of patients and their families.

22     As we look ahead, let us continue to put patients at the centre of everything we do, learn from one another, and work together to scale what works across our healthcare system. If we remain guided by the same question that started this journey: "How do we know if the care we provide is truly making a difference in our patients' lives?", I am confident that we will build a healthcare system that delivers not just more care, but better care for every patient.

23     I wish you a fruitful and inspiring symposium. Thank you.