Harnessing tech to transform diabetes care in Singapore

 07-Apr-16, Today

The World Health Organization (WHO), which is focusing on diabetes for its annual World Health Day today, projects that the disease will move up from the eighth-leading cause of death in 2012 to the seventh-leading cause by 2030.

The statistics for Asia are also worrying. In Singapore, the number of people with diabetes is predicted to reach 695,000 cases by 2030, compared with 328,000 in 2000.

Practitioners of mobile health have consistently considered diabetes to be the therapy field offering the strongest market potential.

Image: Medical Design Technology

Globally, the cost of managing Type 2 Diabetes is estimated at US$612 billion (S$829 billion) in 2014. This is where technology can help. Automated and personalised tools can play an important role in managing diabetes more efficiently and accurately by monitoring data on glucose levels, fitness activity and diet.

For instance, Singapore General Hospital’s Department of Endocrinology and Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS) has developed a mobile application to help type 2 diabetes patients who are new to insulin therapy. The application informs insulin users how much insulin to inject and when, based on the fasting blood sugar reading they input into the app every morning. As a result, patients can self-adjust their insulin dosage without their doctor’s supervision and avoid complications from a delayed dosage adjustment.

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