Alexandra Hospital has taken part in the launch of a new cloud-based digital health service in Singapore by telecommunications provider StarHub, together with its partners, health technology company ConnectedLife and Fitbit.

Called LifeHub+, the mobile app-based service seeks to connect clinicians and health coaches with patients who are at risk or dealing with preventable chronic health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

According to a media release, about 300 patients from AH and GP clinics will be among the first to join the LifeHub+ service and have their health metrics and wellness activities monitored.

WHAT IT DOES

The LifeHub+ app delivers insights into users' health and wellness to help improve their conditions. It generates a dynamic wellness score by collecting and analysing health metrics such as steps, exercise, sleep patterns, heart rate, heart rate variability, skin temperature variation, breathing rate, and oxygen saturation, along with blood pressure and blood glucose data collected from third-party devices.

These health data can be shared with GPs, health coaches, and other care providers who can access them through the LifeHub+ dashboard. 

Moreover, users can set up nudges and reminder alerts on medication, exercise, or scheduled medical checkups. 

In the future, StarHub plans to add lifestyle questionnaires and disease risk assessment tools to the service. 

WHY IT MATTERS

The LifeHub+ service aims to offer patients a personalised health plan to improve their management of health and lifestyle.

Doctors and GPs can use their health data and wellness scores to craft timely interventions to lower their risk factors for chronic diseases and offer lifestyle and dietary modifications.

THE LARGER TREND

ConnectedLife and Fitbit have been on a mission to provide integrated solutions that support digital health ecosystems across Asia-Pacific. Early this year, Manipal Hospitals in India tied up with them to enhance its monitoring of patients' post-surgery conditions. In July, Bio Farma in Indonesia launched a preventive care project utilising the companies' combined solutions in tandem with Google Cloud's platform

ON THE RECORD

"This new digital health initiative leverages wearables to provide a rich source of information on the lifestyle of our patients, which helps our doctors and health coaches in AH improve patients' health holistically through timely lifestyle interventions," Dr Alexander Yip, clinical director of AH's Healthcare Redesign programme, also added

"Aligned with our DARE+ strategy, we are leveraging our expertise in connectivity to create a digital health service that helps doctors channel attentive care and enrol their consenting patients into a holistic health plan. With LifeHub+, clinicians can access the latest health data and evaluate their patients' wellness quickly and accurately, and intervene early when they discover risk factors. Besides guiding users to lead healthier lives, we are enriching community support in a digital ecosystem, bridging family doctors, hospitals, and patients' family members to deliver integrated proactive care," Johan Buse, Consumer Business chief at StarHub, explained their new cloud-based digital health service.