Hairil Rizal Bin Abdullah

A/Prof Hairil Rizal Bin Abdullah
Director, Office of Value Based Healthcare
SingHealth

Assoc Prof Hairil Rizal Abdullah is a Senior Consultant Anaesthesiologist at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and Associate Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School. In 2014, he founded SGH's Perioperative Medicine service and Preoperative Assessment Centre, transforming how patients are prepared for surgery. He has since led programmes including Patient Blood Management, Prehabilitation, and Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS), earning national and international recognition.

A recipient of the Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship (2022) and the NMRC Clinician Scientist Award (2023), he is also ranked among the top 2% of globally cited scientists in his field. His PhD in Healthcare Data Science underpins his role as Co-Director of the Data Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at SGH. He now leads Value Based Healthcare initiatives across SGH and the SingHealth cluster, and was honoured with SingHealth's Distinguished Champion of Change Leader Award in 2022.

Presentation Synopsis

HM 14 - Choosing Wisely with Patients and Caregivers 

In healthcare, more is not always better, but neither is less. Unnecessary tests and treatments can delay care, cause anxiety, and burden patients and caregivers without improving outcomes. At the same time, underuse of appropriate care can leave patients without the support they truly need. Choosing Wisely is part of a global movement that encourages thoughtful, evidence-based decision-making that puts patients first.

This session explores what Choosing Wisely means in practice – not as a cost-cutting initiative, but as a commitment to delivering care that truly matters. Through real examples, we will examine how addressing both overuse and underuse of care can meaningfully improve patient and caregiver outcomes and experience: from reducing avoidable waiting time, to ensuring patients receive the right care at the right time.

We will open with an introduction to Choosing Wisely, followed by a panel discussion with patients, caregivers, and clinicians on what shared decision-making looks like on the ground. We hope to build a culture of thoughtful decision-making, where clinicians and patients are empowered to make care decisions together.

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