Forum: Savings from personalised health plans will come over time
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I refer to the news article “ Healthier SG care plans will be more personalised over time with use of apps: Ong Ye Kung Will more personalised healthcare plans cost patients more?
I agree that a personalised health plan requires more effort and resources. It requires us to understand “what matters to me” and acknowledge the patient as an individual, with unique health needs, behaviours and genetic make-up.
The right approach can help to improve our health faster, and give us the right health state to do what we want to do.
Today, the process is very labour- and resource-intensive because our health information and data remain poorly connected. The precision public health approach provides a powerful set of methods and tools to personalise health recommendations for people more efficiently and at scale, and tailor preventive health interventions to be personally relevant and relatable.
Like most technology, investments may be costly at the start and improvements will take time, but over time the incremental costs tail off and savings accrue gradually.
Timely and evidence-based personal health plans can help reduce waste and the workload on our stretched healthcare professionals. Many of the health nudges and advice can be delivered via digital means, which allows for people to be empowered to engage at their own pace and do “what matters to me”.
The world is still learning how to improve healthcare with new technologies, medical innovation and better data-sharing practices amid a more mature perspective of data privacy.
Singapore is well placed to lead the world in this space. Our residents are well informed and digitally savvy; we have a strong and trusted healthcare system, a robust consumer protection system and a solid digital Smart Nation foundation.
With Healthier SG’s push for everyone to have a personal health plan, we must bring together the best of our people, science and technology to make these personal health plans the best that they can be.
Clive Tan (Dr)
Founding Member, Precision Public Health Asia Society
Assistant Professor, NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
