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CEM delivers email security and compliance for SingHealth

A common purpose

SingHealth, Singapore’s largest public healthcare cluster, is united by a common purpose: placing patients at the heart of all it does – be it in clinical care from the primary to acute care settings, or in education and research. With a network of acute hospitals, national specialty centres, polyclinics and community hospitals offering over 40 clinical specialties, SingHealth delivers comprehensive, multidisciplinary and integrated care to its patients.

Successfully managing a group of this size requires a strong commitment to continuous improvement, and this goes beyond delivering excellence in healthcare. SingHealth works hard to ensure that its staff, from frontline clinicians to administrators, have the right technology and resources they need to do their jobs. These were put to the test during the COVID-19 pandemic, when standard working patterns had to be re-evaluated and remodeled.

Defining the solution

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore, SingHealth made provisions for its staff to communicate virtually and work remotely where possible. However, this coincided with some major changes in policy and protocol which public healthcare providers had to adhere to. Staff had previously been able to access work emails from personal mobile devices simply by using the stock Android and iOS email apps. For compliance and security reasons, this had to change. Corporate-issued devices weren’t a problem, but SingHealth had to find a way to keep personal and corporate data completely separate and retain the ability to access and control corporate data on personal devices while ensuring user privacy.

SingHeath began assessing options and identified Citrix Endpoint Management (CEM) as a potential solution. SingHealth already uses Citrix Virtual Application solution to access their electronic medical records (EMR) system, so for Kevin Tay, Group Chief Information Officer at SingHealth, Citrix Endpoint Management was a comfortable decision. “Citrix was already an important component for us to access our EMR system,” he recalls, “and Citrix Endpoint Management met our originally defined need for a solution to manage our emails on personal mobility devices.”

Compliance and ease of use

Rolling out the solution would be a considerable task. From over 30,000 SingHealth employees, Tay and his colleagues identified 10,000 staff for whom the business case for emails enabled by CEM was most pressing. These included clinicians, nursing, allied health and administrative professionals. A series of workshops, videos and online webinars were organised to familiarise them with CEM and its installation process. Net One Asia, a Citrix Platinum Partner, completed the implementation & rollout of Citrix Endpoint Management (CEM). “The solution is designed to provide SingHealth a go-to workspace on personal mobile devices with a strong foundation of data security, compliance & governance.” – Moses Yeo, Managing Director


As the roll-out completed with minimal disruption to SingHealth’s operations, Citrix Endpoint Management’s ease of use meant a simple user guide was enough to get people started without time-consuming training programs. Key staff are now able to access business emails from personal devices, without having to carry a corporate-issued laptop with them everywhere they go, all while remaining fully compliant with necessary security requirements.

“Our compliance requirements are very strict, and these are users’ personal phones,” explains Tay. “The Citrix Endpoint Management’s mobile app management (MAM) mode helps to manage the corporate applications and keeps them separated from any personal data.”

Contained data, maintained security

While secure mobile email access was SingHealth’s primary requirement from Citrix Endpoint Management, the solution provided additional functionalities that went beyond the original defined use case. Using CEM, users can now access some of their corporate applications including SingHealth’s HR and Invoice approval systems securely from their personal mobile devices. “Our HR and Invoice approval systems could only be accessed from our corporate laptop,” says Tay, “With Citrix Endpoint Management, staff can now safely log in using a mobile device.”

Tay continues, “The main thing is that corporate data is all contained, and security is maintained. There's no mixture between corporate and personal data, and we can also wipe corporate data remotely. It gives our staff much more freedom and flexibility to carry out their roles, whether patient-facing or not, effectively.”

“With Citrix Endpoint Management, staff can now log in and access corporate applications securely using their personal mobile device.”
Kevin Tay
Group Chief Information Officer
SingHealth

Industry

  • Healthcare

Location

  • Singapore

Citrix Products

“Citrix was already an important component for us to access our EMR system, and Citrix Endpoint Management met our originally defined need for a solution to manage our emails on personal mobility devices.”
Kevin Tay
Group Chief Information Officer
SingHealth