KEYNOTE SPEECH BY MR ONG YE KUNG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH, AT THE 2ND ASEAN DIGITAL PUBLIC HEALTH CONFERENCE ON 22 NOVEMBER 2022, 2.40PM

Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew Abdullah 
Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham Bin Haji Jaafar 
Ladies and gentlemen

        Thank you for inviting me to the 2nd ASEAN Digital Public Health Conference. Unfortunately, I am unable to be with you physically in Brunei, but am glad that I can speak to you virtually, and live, alongside representatives from various regions.  

Demographic challenges in the region

2.     As the dust of the COVID-19 pandemic settles, healthcare systems around the world will once again revert to the central challenge of our generation, which is rapidly ageing populations across many societies around the world. 

3.     By 2030, for the first time in recorded human history, the old will outnumber the young. In fact, East Asia is ageing faster than any other part of the world due to declining fertility and people living longer lives. 

4.     Within East Asia, Singapore is one of the fastest ageing countries, together with Japan and South Korea. One in four Singaporeans will be aged 65 and above by 2030, up from one in six today. 

5.     Ageing is a key but not only factor, driving the increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases. In Singapore, we have been seeing a rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol among Singapore adults, alongside other concerning trends like obesity. 

6.     In the coming ten years, we will expect a significant rise in disease burden. The impact will be palpably felt across individual lives, families, neighbourhoods and companies. Families will find it challenging to cope with taking care of their aged loved ones. In the community vehicular traffic needs to slow down, the green phase for pedestrians need to be longer, every nook and corner needs to be curb and barrier free. Hospitals need to cope with significantly high patient load, and Governments need to ensure that it can afford its healthcare budget. 

Singapore’s Healthier SG strategy

7.     We must move quickly to address this. Singapore has built a strong foundation for our healthcare sector. We expanded the capacity of our healthcare system, strengthened the capabilities of our healthcare workforce through expanding education and training opportunities, and have been promoting healthy living. 

8.     We will build on this with Healthier SG, a major national strategy to transform our healthcare system, to shift our focus from curative care to preventive care, from hospitals to community care. This is essential to put our healthcare system on a more sustainable footing. Some commentators thought this this is the biggest healthcare reform in Singapore for the past 50 years. 

9.     Let me briefly explain what Healthier SG entails. There are five key components: 

10.     First, we are mobilising our family doctors from both public and private community clinics deliver preventive care to our people. In Singapore, family doctors are trusted nodes who provide accessible care in the community. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many of them played a critical role in our public health response. Under Healthier SG, we want to mobilise them to build strong relationships with their patients and play a bigger role in preventive health. 

11.      Second, health plans. Under Healthier SG, family doctors will guide their patients to develop a personal health plan. This plan will focus on the health status of the patient, health goals to achieve, and an action plan. The action plan will centre around preventive health such as completing essential health screenings and vaccinations and picking up healthy life habits such as good diet, adequate sleep and exercise. 

12.     Third, we will work with community partners to support residents in leading healthier lifestyles. Improving health goes beyond a doctor’s visit. It is not easy to follow diet or exercise advice to improve our lifestyles by ourselves. Community partners who create a supportive environment for healthy living and organise health related groups and activities, are critical to this journey.

13.     Fourth, the last three components will come together as a national enrolment programme. Singapore residents will be invited to enrol with one regular family doctor and build a long-lasting relationship with them. For residents who are healthy or experiencing an early onset of chronic illness, their family doctor will support them in remaining healthy for as long as possible. As for residents who already have chronic conditions, their doctor will support them in preventing or delaying illness progression. And for those who require more medical care, their doctor would work with their specialist doctors to manage their conditions. In short, family doctors will support and work with residents to improve their health, and not only step in when there are acute symptoms. 

14.     Fifth, we will strengthen our system enablers.  We need the right financing system, such as through capitation funding, to provide the incentives for healthcare providers to focus on preventive care. Another significant enabler is the IT system. We need a robust system to collect and share patient data safely and securely, to pave the way for an integrated care models, foster team-based care, and improve the way primary care providers interact with their residents. 

15.     This is the backdrop of the central challenge and response of the Singapore healthcare system. I took some time to explain this, because it is within this context that we are making a major push for digital health.  

16.     There are four aspects of digital health innovation: First, powering healthcare through centralised IT system; second, leveraging individuals’ effort through digital technology; third, raising productivity through telemedicine; and fourth, harnessing the breakthroughs in medical science. 

Powering the Healthcare System

17.     First, to drive integrated and seamless care, we need to power the national healthcare system with a few strategic, mission-critical, centralized IT system.  
 
18.     In Singapore, one such system is the National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) system.  NEHR captures the summaries of patients’ medical records in a central platform that is accessible by licensed healthcare providers. We have enhanced the system to improve the collection and sharing of summarised medical data among healthcare providers such as family doctors, hospitals and community care partners like nursing homes. 

19.     Patients in turn has a window into the NEHR to access their own medical data through HealthHub, a web and mobile application, with expanded access to records such as their screening results and their health plan under Healthier SG. 

20.     To facilitate the proper collection, use and sharing of health data among healthcare providers in a safe and secure manner, we will introduce a new legislation, the Health Information Bill, in 2023. The Bill will mandate licensed healthcare providers to contribute patients’ summarised medical records into the NEHR, so in turn able to patients’ health data by their care teams across different settings. The new legislation will also mandate data governance, IT and cybersecurity capabilities by healthcare providers and data intermediaries. 

21.     The fact is, we cannot view healthcare just as a hospital-activity, because that is sick care. Healthcare happens in homes, at workplaces and in the community. For that to happen, medical records need to be accessible safely and securely across settings and healthcare providers. 

Leveraging Individuals’ Effort

22.     Second, digital innovation in healthcare is to leverage individuals’ effort. Ultimately, each of us are responsible for our own health, because we are the biggest and most consequential stakeholder. Yet, most of us visit our doctors infrequently. We may abide by his advice for a few weeks and slack off after that. We lack the medical expertise and knowledge and especially the motivation, to stay healthy. 

23.     Digital technology can now be used to empower and motivate individuals to take greater ownership of our health.  Wearables come in many forms now – watches, rings, even shirts – and paired with a mobile app, they encourage us to adopt healthy lifestyles, eat better, exercise more, sleep more soundly.  

24.     After the COVID-19 pandemic, we have a great opportunity to promote the use of digital health apps. All over the world, people are used to checking COVID-19 test results or vaccination status using a health app, which has become a must-have in our smart phones. Now, we can use these digital companions to help individuals take steps toward better health. It will be a powerful multiplier for our Healthier SG strategy. 

25.     Singapore has a head start in this. Years ago, we developed an application called Healthy 365, which allows sign-ups for healthy lifestyle programmes, as well as easy tracking of lifestyle data such as physical activity and healthier food purchases.

26.     With the Healthy 365 app, residents can also participate in the National Steps Challenge, the world’s first population-level fitness tracker-based activity to gamify physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour. Today, one fifth of our adult population participates in the National Steps Challenge.  By clocking steps and engaging in moderate or vigorous physical activity, they can earn them “Health Points”, which can be used at various participating merchants. 

27.     Additionally, we need an open architecture which promotes system interoperability and compatibility between wearables and digital health apps like Fitbit, Apple, Garmin and Samsung to allow consumers and patients to adopt and use these devices as part of their daily lives. 

Raising Productivity

28.     Third, we can achieve a significant leap in productivity in healthcare delivery, through telemedicine. Telemedicine and teleconsultation had not been well-accepted in Singapore.  However, during the pandemic, we established telemedicine systems and processes for those recovering from COVID-19 at home. Today, it is well-accepted, and patients begin to see the benefit of telehealth – that it is convenient, accessible and the doctor can be equally personal and attentive to the patient. 

29.     We should make telehealth the norm in our healthcare delivery system. This is especially important for an ageing society, where mobility of patients can be a challenge.  Telehealth will expand the capacity of primary care to manage patients with chronic conditions and improve their outcomes in a cost-effective manner. 

30.     At the same time, home delivery for medicine and contactless transactions can become part and parcel of the new normal. During the pandemic, we deliver medication and oxy-meters to COVID-19 patients. We are in the process of developing the centralised pharmaceutical distribution system, which can make telemedicine even more attractive and convenient. 

Harnessing Breakthroughs 

31.     Finally, and possibly the most significant of all, is to harness the breakthroughs in medical science. The possibilities are many, but let me cite two examples over the horizon. 

32.     One is the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI can enable our healthcare workers to better care patients. For example, in the area of early diagnosis, the Singapore National Eye Centre, Singapore Eye Research Institute and National University of Singapore School of Computing jointly developed an AI system called SELENA+ (stands for Singapore Eye LEsioN Analyser Plus). It uses deep learning models on retina images to detect Diabetic Retinopathy and has been deployed to 23 polyclinics and reading centres.  The system helps us overcome our shortage of trained healthcare professionals and detect high-risk patients early to prevent future blindness.

33.     Two, is the powerful convergence of digital technology and bioscience. In 1990, the Human Genome Project was started to generate the first sequence of the human genome.  It is literally a human blueprint, which is in turn made up of billions of DNA, each of which in turn comprises four chemical bases – A, G, C, T – as building blocks.  

34.     In other words, humans are not very different from an extremely complex set of computer source codes. In the years and decades to come, we will bound to see a convergence of digital and bioscience technology.

35.     We have already witnessed the record-breaking speed in COVID-19 vaccine development. Scientists are now working on a 100-day project, which is the targeted time taken to develop a vaccine for the next pandemic. This is possible because of the mRNA technology platform, where vaccines are literally programmed – like a software – to fight new pathogens.  

36.     Hence, Singapore has started administering Moderna bivalent vaccines, which also protects against the BA.1 variant – an improvement from the original vaccine. Soon, we will have the Pfizer bivalent vaccine, which protects against BA.5.  I commented to a colleague that vaccines development now is almost like upgrading of our smart phone operating system – version 15, to 16, to 16.1, 16.2 etc. 

37.     I think this is just the start of the revolution. In time, there will be treatment and therapies, intervening at the cellular or genetic level, for various diseases. It will also be possible to sequence the genomes of individuals, to find out their health risks. The possibilities are exciting, but also poses many difficult legal, moral, social and financial challenges and dilemmas.   

Closing

38.     Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my thoughts. I thank the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Ministry of Health in Brunei Darussalam for hosting this Conference and wish all of you an enriching and thought-provoking day ahead. Thank you.