The rapidly aging population is a worldwide phenomenon. In Singapore, 1 in 5 people will be above 65 years by 2020. Coupled with decades of low birth-rates, the strain on healthcare provision and cost will be enormous. To mitigate this, successful aging is the major health goal.
We envision SGH would be developed into the thought leader in Aging research through the following three key strategies, namely 1) sarcopenia and chronic disease management, 2) osteoarthritis (OA) care and 3) perioperative medicine.
In 5 years' time, through the research of this PEAK, we envision translating to a service that improve health in people with chronic diseases through delivering targeted nudges via mobile application and wearables to sustain behavioral change and patient empowerment.
Similarly, we envision patients with knee OA will have a model to stratify them to receive appropriate medical, rehabilitation or surgical treatments; that will provide the best cost effective model of care for patients with knee OA.
Finally, we envision research with big data will enable us to develop the best risk stratification profiling model to guide the provision of best perioperative medicine for the aging population.
The three strategies aligned with three of the Quadruple Aim in accordance with the wider SGH and SingHealth Strategy. The community screening and intervention for frailty projects, basic science on OA pathogenesis mechanism, drug discovery for OA, will shed lights onto better medicine and care, and beyond the concept of health care to better population health. Improving TKR outcomes, optimizing perioperative care for elderly will bring along better experience of care. And in each strategic program, we seek to design, and derive evidence to support new cost effective and sustainable models of health care for an aging population.
