Putting people first when building healthcare tech

Published on 26 March 2026

As Head of Group Service Transformation at NUHS and Head of Healthcare Redesign at Alexandra Hospital, Ms Kimberly Zhang uses digital tools to close gaps in care without losing the human touch.

At a glance

• Technology at NUHS starts by understanding patient journeys and frontline challenges.
• Digital services such as “Emergency Visit” in the NUHS App show how thoughtful design can improve access and reduce friction in care.
• As AI adoption grows, trust, governance and meaningful engagement remain central to implementation.

In an era where artificial intelligence and digital tools dominate healthcare headlines, Ms Kimberly Zhang offers a measured reminder. 

“Sometimes, it is important to recognise that technology is not always the solution to every problem,” she said.

It is an unexpected view from someone who leads Group Service Transformation at the National University Health System (NUHS), where she drives tech-enabled changes in how care is delivered. She also heads Healthcare Redesign at Alexandra Hospital (AH), where she uses digital tools to rethink how patients move through clinical services.

Indeed, Ms Zhang explained that building a new digital solution is rarely the first step in solving problems in healthcare.

“We actually spend more time exploring each use case thoroughly before embarking on tech development,” she elaborated. “Perhaps even more time than we spend building the tech solution itself.”

That discipline matters at a time when new digital tools are emerging faster than people can adapt to them. The goal, Ms Zhang said, is to keep patients and care teams at the centre of every decision. 

“I connect with patients to better understand their care journeys, pain points and expectations, and I work closely with colleagues directly involved in patient care,” she shared.

“The human element is crucial in what we do. I try to keep my eyes and ears close to the ground so that we can focus on solving real problems for care teams, and not introduce technology for its own sake.”

Developing digital solutions

Once a technology solution is identified, the real work begins: balancing what patients need, what care teams can sustain and what the system can support.

“Healthcare is inherently complex, and we often have to balance making the system more efficient with making sure it still works well for patients,” Ms Zhang said. “While trade-offs are sometimes necessary, bridging perspectives is equally, if not more, important.” 

When it comes together, however, the payoff is tangible. One recent example is “Emergency Visit”, a service within the NUHS App designed for people seeking emergency care at NUHS hospitals.

The feature allows users to check estimated waiting times before they arrive and complete a health declaration in advance, which helps to speed up registration. 

“It was a first in public healthcare and we did not expect uptake to be high, as staff were sceptical that unwell patients would turn to the app,” Ms Zhang said. 

“But within the first three months, the number of users grew to 18,000 per month, which was encouraging. This gave us the momentum to further enhance the app’s features and scale it to more hospitals.”

The role of AI in healthcare

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping industries worldwide. In healthcare, however, Ms Zhang believes the priority is not chasing the newest tool, but ensuring it is introduced responsibly and thoughtfully. 

“With our digital-first strategy firmly established in NUHS, we are exploring AI solutions that build trust with both healthcare providers and patients,” she said.

For clinicians and staff, this means taking on new responsibilities, from learning how AI works to ensuring it is used safely and ethically. 

“For healthcare providers, it is about understanding what AI can do, learning to train it, designing guardrails, experimenting, deploying and eventually scaling up for impact,” said Ms Zhang.

“It is a new responsibility that requires critical thinking about potential liabilities, as well as a strong grounding in governance and ethics when AI becomes part of patient care.”

For patients, she is watching how comfortable people feel with AI and whether service standards remain high. For now, the emphasis is on customer service and communication.

AI, she added, can make public health information and services easier to access by using familiar channels with lower barriers to entry, such as WhatsApp; enhancing communication through multilingual chatbots; and extending service availability beyond office hours. 

“Ultimately, the goal of AI should be to enable more meaningful citizen engagement by providing customisable and personalised user journeys,” she said.

In it for the long haul

When asked what keeps her striving for excellence, Ms Zhang pointed to an unexpected source of motivation: patients who are not fully satisfied, yet still take the time to share feedback.

“Patients who are ‘delightfully’ unsatisfied take the effort to provide feedback to us,” she said. “In doing so, they constantly raise the bar, driving me and my team to do more and better.” 

Her advice to those considering this field is pragmatic: define the problem clearly before designing solutions, identify stakeholders early and test ideas in small, workable versions before refining them. 

“Perfection is the enemy of progress,” she said. “Focus on value creation and impact. Innovation is a journey, not a destination.”

In consultation with Ms Kimberly Zhang, Head, Group Service Transformation, NUHS, and Head, Healthcare Redesign, AH. Ms Zhang was featured in GovInsider’s Women in GovTech 2025 report, which spotlights innovators reshaping how public services are delivered.