The services can impact your daily life, your dietary choices, your physical routines, and your compliance with medication.” – Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, the minister in-charge for Smart Nation initiative
Singapore government is really committed in pursuing its aim to become the first ever Smart Nation in the world. Currently they have been conducting different government initiatives that can help enhance our daily living. From engaging the students to technology, providing seamless connectivity at street level, opportunity for technology innovators and now the smart health monitoring for elderlies.
One of the key priorities that of the Smart Nation programme is to help the elderlies at home and improve their healthcare. In relation to this, Modern Ageing – a tech accelerator aimed to develop healthcare services for retirees was launched last 28 April 2015. It is a collaboration between an American non-profit organisation Access Health and NUS enterprise and National University of Singapore. It is also supported with the Ministry of Health, Singapore.
Modern Ageing looks for 20 teams that can develop innovative ideas on dental, eye care and mobility. They will be selected and will then start a four-month course on August. The team with the best idea will be funded with $50,000.
The innovation of a portal which helps the patients to look for doctors and make appointments were already founded last 2012 by a local company, DocDoc. Another innovation is from Sypher Lab’s Neat IP. It includes sensor-enabled video capture and educational handheld game. With these current innovations, we really could expect more for the future.
A technologically enabled environment for elderlies will greatly improve their way of life and will give them better health assistance not only in the hospitals but also in the comfort of their homes. This will assure their family members that even though they are not always present by their side, the new technology can help them monitor the health condition of a family member specially the elderlies.
This kind of initiative shows that technology is not only developed for the young generation but as well as the seniors. Since not all of them are tech-savvy, this programme will help them to be acquainted with technology and how it can help them through modern healthcare facilities.