Speech by Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Health, at the Official Opening of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine's Population & Community Health Laboratories, Level 18, Clinical Sciences Building, 18 June 2018

Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine Governing Board,

Professor James Best, Dean, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1.         Good morning.  I am happy to be here today to officiate the opening of the Population and Community Health Laboratories at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine).

Transforming Healthcare Through Greater Focus on Population Health Improvement

2.         Population Health Management has grown in importance, especially with our ageing population and rising incidence of chronic diseases.  By 2030, we expect the number of seniors aged 65 years and above to double to 900,000.  With many living longer, chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes are rising sharply. There is an urgent need to move beyond just providing care for those with disease to improving the health of the entire Singapore population.  We must focus on wellness, chronic disease prevention as well as educating and empowering individuals to take better care of themselves.

3.         As you can imagine, this will require a significant paradigm shift in the way we deliver healthcare.  To improve population health, we must reach out to the community, and build stronger links and partnerships with Singaporeans. We also need to look at other factors that are linked to healthcare such as exercise and diet, and even social and economic determinants of health and social support services.  There are multiple levels of planning and delivery to bring about effective population health management, from the systems level down to individuals.

4.         For the past few years, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has increased its outreach efforts to the community to motivate Singaporeans to take charge of their health.  In April 2016, MOH announced the ‘War on Diabetes’ to rally a whole-of-nation effort to reduce the burden of diabetes in our population and keep Singaporeans as healthy as possible even as we age.  In 2015, the Health Promotion Board launched the National Steps Challenge to promote healthier lifestyle and awareness through a step tracking and reward system. The National Steps Challenge initiative has just completed Season Three in April 2018. 

5.         MOH is also focusing efforts to transform the care model (Beyond Hospital to Home) by leveraging primary and community care networks to care for the seniors and help them keep their conditions stable in the community.  This includes improving access to quality primary care through initiatives such as the Primary Care Network (PCN) where General Practitioners (GPs) organise themselves into virtual networks to deliver holistic care as a multi-disciplinary team.  Another example is the Hospital to Home (H2H) programme where care to patients is integrated in a seamless manner across the various care settings.  Patients who are discharged from hospitals can transit to be cared for at home so that they can recover in the community after discharge.

6.         I am therefore heartened that LKCMedicine is embracing population health management.  LKCMedicine Professor of Cardiovascular Epidemiology John Chambers is leading the Health for Life in Singapore (HELIOS) study, one of the first studies to be hosted at the new Population and Community Health Laboratories.  I believe that the new laboratories will be able to contribute substantially in this area of population health management and facilitate transformation of our care model.

Importance of Education, Research and Partnership

7.         Besides strengthening our health system and model of care for population health management, enhancing research, education and partnerships through health innovations and digital health are equally important.  These efforts will help us better understand the prevalence, prognosis and progression of diseases, and allow us to improve ways of delivering care and intervening early.

8.         Partnership is critical. Clinical-academic partnerships such as that among LKCMedicine, the National Healthcare Group (NHG) and the NHG Polyclinics ensure that medical students are immersed in the realities of healthcare from an early stage and are given ample opportunities to come to practical grips with the challenges of a nationwide healthcare provider.  This not only produces healthcare professionals who are equipped early for the rigours of their vocation but also ensures that the medical talent entering the system are appropriately trained to meet the needs of the population. 

9.         The National Medical Research Council (NMRC) administers various funding initiatives, which include health services and population health research.  For example, NHG Polyclinics and the Institute of Mental Health, in partnership with LKCMedicine were successful in securing a collaborative Centre Grant (CG)[1] of $5 million over four years for “Primary Health Care Research In Multimorbidity and Mental Health in a Multi-Ethnic Population (PRIME)”.  The aim is to better manage patients who suffer from mental and physical health conditions, and design interventions and new service delivery models. This is part of the Centre for Primary Health Care Research and Innovation joint initiative between LKCMedicine and NHG Polyclinics to develop clinical-academic partnership in Family Medicine.

Preparedness for the Future

10.      The launch of LKCMedicine’s Population and Community Health laboratories is timely as Singapore earnestly prepares for our rapidly ageing population in the next one to two decades.  The research conducted in these laboratories will improve chronic disease prevention and management, and help people lead healthier lives for a longer period of time. The laboratories will take a holistic approach in their research that will deepen our understanding of why Singaporeans are prone to certain diseases, so that these health issues can be tackled early through community-based prevention and treated effectively in our hospitals and clinics.

11.       I would like to congratulate LKCMedicine on the opening of LKCMedicine’s Population and Community Health Labs and I look forward to seeing impactful work which could make a positive difference to Singapore’s health systems and the health of our population.

Thank you.

[1] The Centre Grant provides funding support to the public healthcare institutions and clusters to build up their core research capabilities in terms of common research platforms, shared equipment and core manpower to enhance their collaborative and transdisciplinary research productivity in achieving progress towards the RIE2020 goals of healthcare research (i.e. translational & clinical research)