The Singapore Health Promotion Board is working with several technology companies to pilot programs aimed at promoting self-health management through results data-driven, personalized recommendations for preventing and managing chronic diseases.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
The DigiCoach program with Abbott, together with Health2Sync, a digital diabetes platform developer from Taiwan, will target pre-diabetic individuals or those with a high body mass index.
It features Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitor, which will combine with Health2Sync’s mobile app to provide near real-time insights, helping users become aware of how their blood glucose levels impact their diet and physical activities. Additionally, the digital coaching component of the program will guide pilot participants in making lifestyle changes to better control their blood sugar levels.
Another program with Google, HealthTrack SG, will focus on helping participants manage hypertension, diabetes mellitus or hyperlipidemia.
Working with Fullerton Health and digital health technology company ConnectedLife, the program will collect participants’ lifestyle data, including step count, physical activity level and sleep quality, via Fitbit fitness trackers, as well as their clinical data, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. This data will be consolidated on an online dashboard for physicians and integrated into a companion mobile application to be developed by Google and ConnectedLife.
The mobile app also provides tips and nudges, helping users make lifestyle changes vetted by Fullerton Health physicians.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
The HPB, which drives Singapore’s national health promotion and disease prevention programmes, has sought industry collaborations to trial new solutions to help Singaporeans take greater control of their health.
In a statement, the agency said up to 6,000 Singaporeans are expected to participate in the latest pilot programs; Enrollment for the 10-month DigiCoach by Abbott and Health2Sync began in July, while recruitment for the year-long Google-ConnectedLife pilot will take place in the first half of 2025.
These programs are also expected to provide HPB data-driven insights into the health issues and lifestyle risks of the Singaporean population. “All data collected will be protected and stored in accordance with Singapore’s data privacy and security laws,” it assured.
In addition, HPB is exploring the potential to scale up the programs to more Singaporeans once they are proven effective and feasible.
THE BIG TREND
In Singapore, Google-owned ConnectedLife and Fitbit are already involved in a cloud-based digital preventive health service from telecommunications provider StarHub. Alexandra Hospital in Queenstown, Singapore participated in the launch of this service two years ago.
The two technology companies also came in the same year in collaboration with BioFarma in Indonesia on a similar preventive health initiative using wearable data.
ON THE RECORD
“Our latest collaborations with Abbott and Health2Sync, as well as Google, ConnectedLife and Fullerton Health, will allow us to pilot new solutions that deliver timely and actionable recommendations to Singaporeans to prevent or manage chronic conditions. These solutions can be used in may be scaled up in the future to help more Singaporeans,” said Tay Choon Hong, CEO of HPB, in a statement.