Kuala Lampur, Feb. 12 -- The success of the healthcare system is often measured by its hardware, where we count the resolution of MRI machines or the precision of the robotic surgical arms. As a biomedical engineering student, I have spent the last four years studying the physics and mathematics that make these miracles possible. Yet, as I approach graduation and prepare to enter the industry, I have realised a fundamental truth that is not always in the textbooks: The most advanced machine in the world is useless if it terrifies the patient it is meant to save. Only when healthcare design begins with empathy, technology becomes a powerful tool for healing rather than a source of fear and uncertainty.

For many patients, a hospital visit ...