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Wearables Enable Prevention On A Mass Scale Apple is partnering with the Singapore government to improve citizens’ health, opening a new chapter in the relationship between public health and digital health innovations. Joining forces Singapore is believed to have one of the most effective health care systems in the world, even though its expenditure on health does not exceed 5% of GDP. Average life expectancy at birth is a recordbreaking 84.8 years. Society is aging quickly, and according to forecasts by 2030 one in four Singaporeans will be over 65 years old. It is a rich country, in which the gross domestic product per capita is higher than in the USA. The 5.6 million residents of Singapore will now have a chance to participate in a pioneering health prevention program, LumiHealth. It is being in-
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troduced by the government and Apple as part of the Smart Nation initiative. The big tech company has exactly what health care needs, namely technology in the form of smartphones and smartwatches which can be used to get people into health programs. “This partnership between Singapore and Apple will enable Singaporeans to lead healthier lives but, equally important, it will contribute valuable insights to improving the health of people all over the world,” said Heng Swee Keat, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister. Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, sees this partnership as an opportunity for a “holistic ap-
proach to well-being”. It is not the first partnership between private and public entities, but it is pioneering in terms of its scale and approach, which involves the use of Apple Watches. This solution is not cheap (prices start at about 200 euros), but in a country like Singapore, with prosperity based on a culture of innovation, the authors of the project are not accused of exacerbating the health inequalities. In less wealthy countries, this step would be risky.
To motivate and encourage What kind of things cannot be done with the traditional tools used by health ministries or public health organizations, but which become possible through technology? The answer is the personalization of preventive healthcare, play-based involvement and direct tracking of results. Moreover, the program is fully digital and designed as a free mobile application.
