Singapore tackling chronic diseases with wearables
Singapore’s Health Promotion Board has partnered with several technology companies to pilot programmes that aim to promote self-health management by delivering data-driven, personalised recommendations for preventing and managing chronic diseases.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
The DigiCoach programme with Abbott, together with Health2Sync, developer of a digital diabetes platform from Taiwan, will target pre-diabetic individuals or those with high body mass index.
It features Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitor, which will be paired with Health2Sync’s mobile app to provide near real-time insights, helping users become aware of how their blood glucose levels affect their diet and physical activities. Additionally, the digital coaching component of the programme will guide pilot participants in making lifestyle adjustments to better manage their blood sugar.
Another programme with Google, HealthTrack SG, will focus on helping participants manage hypertension, diabetes mellitus, or hyperlipidaemia.
Together with Fullerton Health and digital health tech company ConnectedLife, the programme will collect participants’ lifestyle data, including step count, physical activity level, and sleep quality, through Fitbit fitness trackers, as well as their clinical data, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. These data will be consolidated onto an online dashboard for doctors and integrated into an accompanying mobile application to be developed by Google and ConnectedLife.
The mobile app will also provide tips and nudges, assisting users in fulfilling lifestyle adjustments vetted by Fullerton Health doctors.
WHY IT MATTERS
The HPB, which drives Singapore’s national health promotion and disease prevention programmes, has sought industry collaborations to try out new solutions to help Singaporeans take more control of their health.
In a statement, the agency said up to 6,000 Singaporeans are expected to join its latest pilot programmes; enrolment for the 10-month DigiCoach by Abbott and Health2Sync began in July while recruitment for the year-long Google-ConnectedLife pilot will run in the first half of 2025.
These programmes are also expected to provide HPB data-driven insights into the health concerns and lifestyle risks of Singaporean people. “All data collected will be protected and stored according to Singapore’s data privacy and security laws,” it assured.
Additionally, HPB is exploring the potential to scale the programmes to more Singaporeans once proven effective and feasible.
THE LARGER TREND
In Singapore, ConnectedLife and Google-owned Fitbit are already involved in a cloud-based digital preventative health service by telecommunications provider StarHub. Alexandra Hospital in Queenstown, Singapore took part in the launch of this service two years ago.
In the same year, the two technology companies also partnered with Bio Farma in Indonesia on a similar preventative health initiative using wearable data.
ON THE RECORD
“Our latest collaborations with Abbott and Health2Sync, and with Google, ConnectedLife and Fullerton Health, will allow us to trial new solutions that deliver more timely and actionable recommendations to Singaporeans to prevent or manage chronic conditions. These solutions can be potentially scaled up in future to help more Singaporeans,” said HPB CEO Tay Choon Hong in a statement.
