About

The global population is ageing rapidly and the percentage of the population aged 60 years and above is expected to increase dramatically by 2050. The “Silver Tsunami” and the associated increase in chronic diseases are changing healthcare needs in fundamental ways, which could exacerbate the shortage of affordable healthcare services and lead to rising costs.

To meet the healthcare needs of the future, mobile digital health technologies could play a pivotal role in moving towards a future-oriented and sustainable healthcare model. However, there is still a gap between what existing healthcare technologies offer and the positive socioeconomic outcomes that they are expected to deliver. Thus, a holistic and evidence-based approach is required to gain public trust and acceptance of these technologies.

Globally, Singapore is among the first to initiate future-oriented initiatives in support of a patient-centric healthcare transformation, as encapsulated in its vision of “Beyond Healthcare to Health; Beyond Hospital to Community; Beyond Quality to Value”. With its high technical readiness, innovativeness, and proactive strategy, Singapore offers a unique environment to develop mobile digital health technologies, supported by an ecosystem of local agencies and clinical and industry partners.

In the Future Health Technologies (FHT) programme, multidisciplinary teams develop a future-oriented mobile digital health concept which combines scientific and technological innovations with clinical, industry and other stakeholder needs. It tackles care for the increasing number of patients suffering from chronic diseases, particularly diabetes, obesity and stroke. Leveraging on scalable digital technologies, the team aims to transform the healthcare system towards a community-based and patient-centric model along the continuum of care.

Working closely with local agencies, industry and clinical partners, we ensure that new tools are applicable to the individual and their social environment, healthcare professionals and healthcare providers, and can be integrated into Singapore's healthcare delivery workflow.

The FHT is the third programme of the Singapore-ETH Centre, which was established by ETH Zurich and Singapore's National Research Foundation (NRF), as part of NRF’s external page CREATE Campus. The programme brings together leading Singapore- and Swiss-based universities and hospitals including ETH Zurich, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), National University of Singapore (NUS), Duke-NUS Medical School, National Health Group (NHG), National University Health System (NUHS), and SingHealth.