Big data to fight chronic disease in Singapore

 28-Jul-15, Today 

In Singapore, a fast-ageing population is spurring the rising burden of chronic diseases. This will place great strain on the already-stretched healthcare system in the coming years.

Most chronic diseases are currently managed in the primary-care system (GP clinics and polyclinics), which is driven by a “fee-for-service” model that emphasises volume and profitability of services.

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This is not a sustainable framework to handle chronic diseases. Instead, a better financial model for managing patients with chronic diseases is capitation, a system where the doctors are paid a guaranteed sum per patient for a specified total population. This provides incentives for all stakeholders towards keeping the patient as healthy as possible at minimal cost, and forms the basis for value-based healthcare. 

Technology is the key enabler, particularly big-data analytics, in the transformation to such a value-based healthcare system. To stem the tide of chronic diseases, a new model of care focused on prevention and lifestyle management is required. 

An example of this is diabetes, which is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in Singapore. An even larger pool of people are prediabetic, which is the precursor to diabetes. Analytics of available health data can better identify prediabetics who are at highest risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

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