The FHI study also highlights an international consensus that the empowerment of patients and healthcare professionals, along with significant attention and funding for preventive care, could hold the key to sustainable health care delivery. 54% of healthcare professionals polled in Singapore agree that the majority of their time and resources should be spent on preventive care, keeping the healthy well.
“Singapore, like most countries, faces a significant challenge in dealing with the impending growth of its over-70s population alongside the rise we are seeing in diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases in younger generations. The costs of these trends will become unmanageable,” said Patricia Mechael, Principal and Policy Lead at Health Enabled, Executive Vice President at the Personal Connected Health Alliance, HIMSS and a member of the Future Health Index advisory panel. “If shifting the mind-set from reactive to proactive care can keep just one pre-diabetic from becoming diabetic, it’s a huge benefit to the individual and their family, and to the health system and its stretched resources.”
More than one-third (36%) of the healthcare professionals polled also believe accessible, secure information sharing platforms between healthcare professionals will have the most positive impact on citizens taking care of their health.
But the study indicates that in Singapore, an over-reliance on the government and private sector could be hindering Singaporeans from taking more responsibility for their own health, as 66% of the general population say that they would be more likely to use connected care technology if the government subsidized or paid for it, while 38% of the general population polled also said that they would be more likely to use connected care technology if insurance companies paid for it. These sentiments were reflected across all income levels.
“With chronic conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases on the rise in the ASEAN and Pacific region, prevention will be key to alleviating their burden on Singapore’s health system. Greater education has a critical role to play in shifting the mindset of the general population from treatment to prevention. But the government and private sector can only do so much; Singaporeans also need to recognize that this is a very big issue and do more to help themselves. We want to encourage all Singaporeans to do their bit and to take a more active role in living healthier lives,” said Ms. Clarke.
To download the Future Health Index 2017 report in its entirety, please visit https://www.futurehealthindex.com/report/2017/. For additional Future Health Index related content, please visit https://www.futurehealthindex.com/