$90m boost to take population health research to next level

An automated device to screen for frailty and an app to better manage chronic diseases are among the new tools that are being studied or piloted to help keep Singaporeans healthy and out of hospital.

Such efforts are being given a $90 million boost to take population health research to the next level.

This helps lay the ground for a healthier population, and comes after the Ministry of Health announced its Healthier SG strategy last month that is aimed at getting people to adopt a healthy lifestyle early to prevent diseases and ill health.

SingHealth, which is working on those new solutions to improve care in the community, launched its population health research centre at the inaugural Singapore Population Health Symposium yesterday. It is called the SingHealth Centre for Population Health Research and Implementation.

Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary, who launched the centre virtually, said in his speech that the Ministry of Health will be launching the new $90 million grant under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 plan.

"With this new grant scheme, we hope to support a larger pool of researchers on innovative population health research as part of our Healthier SG effort, going beyond conventional ways of delivering health promotion, preventive health and services," he said.

Dr Janil said there are some SingHealth efforts for detection and management of chronic diseases in the community, such as the National Dental Centre Singapore's oral health screening for those above 40 years old and a mobile app called Empower that aims to help residents better manage chronic diseases.

The app delivers personalised nudges and reminders about exercise, taking medication and diet monitoring, as well as health coaching to those with chronic conditions, via their smartwatches.

The pilot started with 1,000 patients with diabetes recruited through SingHealth polyclinics, with plans to roll out the app to those with hypertension and high cholesterol levels subsequently, said Dr Janil.

There is also a frailty screening device called Screenii which captures the walking speed of an individual when he walks towards it, thus removing the need for an elaborate set-up and trained human assessors.

Also plugging into the population health ecosystem is the SingHealth centre's large project on the relatively new concept of life space that will explore how, where and why people travel in order to guide interventions aimed at preventing or delaying disability in seniors, as well as improving their quality of life.

Dr Janil said that it takes an average of 17 years to move research evidence into "real-world" practice, but the new research centre will help to narrow the gap as it is sited in the SingHealth Regional Health System, with access to an extensive network of community partners and research agencies.

Professor Lee Chien Earn, SingHealth's deputy group chief executive of its regional health system, said the symposium, with its theme of life space in seniors, is timely.

Life space is a key spatial community mobility measure associated with one's quality of life and has gained attention in the international scientific field, he said.

"Without a doubt, the pandemic has made a tremendous impact on the health and social care sectors and accelerated the shifting of care from the hospital to the community," he said.

"Concurrently, the Ministry of Health has recently announced the Healthier SG plan, with a strong emphasis on population health."