TRACK SYNOPSIS

A panel of active academics and clinicians sharing ideas and research findings on recent health behavioural studies in Singapore. Employing methodologies based on behavioural intervention, including ‘nudging’ and other forms of interaction with patients, panellists will share their experiences and insights into the design, implementation and evaluation of behavioural interventions in health care.

TRACK SYNOPSIS

This year, the Primary Care Forum will focus on changes in recent healthcare related technology, and how it is affecting healthcare. In line with the multiple drivers in Healthier SG, we will also highlight how primary care can contribute to the needs of patients who may be less commonly encountered now, and how we would need to expand our perspectives in order to care for patients of the near future.

TRACK SYNOPSIS

Singapore is moving towards a population health approach for our health sector – and there is strong focus on preventive care, acute care and aged care systems. Several countries have also adopted a population health approach for their health and social sector design. What is better? What has worked? What solutions and ideas do we want to adapt for our situation and who do we want to learn from? In this session, we will hear from senior leaders from three different countries with different health systems and hear their lived experiences and their interactions with the health system. From the lived experiences and journeys as a person or care-giver living in that country, we will learn about how health systems have made their own design choices based on their values and priorities. This session will inform the audience that Singapore stands at the cusp of a major health sector reform, and we have to collectively make informed choices on the health system we wish to design for the future.

TRACK SYNOPSIS

This track is dedicated to celebrating the Clinician Scientists (CSs) and Innovators’ (CIs) journeys, their achievements and recognising their challenges. There would be discussions on topics close to the CS/CI’s hearts such as the tangible & intangible rewards in navigating through the research/innovation journey, how Innovation could help to translate research findings into healthcare improvements and translating research in population health.

Aside from personal sharing by experienced CSs and CIs, NHG and LKCMedicine are also proud to share about the joint efforts in grooming our research and innovation talents, culminating in the recent establishment of the Academy of Clinician Scientists and Innovators. Here, we will present the plans and initiatives customised to support our next generation of research and innovation leaders in their personal development and preparation to push the envelope in current knowledge and clinical practice.

TRACK SYNOPSIS

Effective Communication’ is a buzz term often reiterated in the healthcare ecosystem and within professional training settings. Indeed, improper communication between stakeholders can result not only in negative patient outcomes and increased healthcare costs through ineffectual care utilization, but also decreased patient and caregiver trust with health systems and care professionals. Clear understanding of information with little ambiguity should ideally be conveyed by all parties and seems to be the obvious overall intention. However, the key constituents for communication that is truly ‘effective’ remain stubbornly nebulous. Moreover, the prevalent issues of healthcare literacy, cultural competency, and language barriers feature prominently as challenges for communicative excellence.

Through a facilitated panel discussion, this session will explore the various communication narratives that exist, underpin and multi-directionally inform healthcare relationships. The track’s diverse panel of experts draw from their scholarly, clinical, educational, and personal lived caregiving experience for an honest and holistic consideration of the various voices present within healthcare. What might be the audible whispers that we strain to hear? How do we tailor our expert voices most efficaciously? How do we train the next generation of effective communicators? The session will conclude with the audience being given the opportunity to showcase their own unique voices through an interactive Q and A segment.

TRACK SYNOPSIS

This year, the Primary Care Forum will focus on changes in recent healthcare related technology, and how it is affecting healthcare. In line with the multiple drivers in Healthier SG, we will also highlight how primary care can contribute to the needs of patients who may be less commonly encountered now, and how we would need to expand our perspectives in order to care for patients of the near future.

TRACK SYNOPSIS

Mental Health can be defined as the ability of an individual to perceive and understand his or her surroundings. It is a state of emotional, psychological, and social wellness. It affects the way we talk, feel and act. Thus, mental and physical health is co-dependent. The ability to cope with adverse conditions is resilience.

In order for resilience to be achieved, the role of protective factors enable the individual’s ability to respond positively to risks and reduce the effects of adversity.

Protective factors have commonly been identified across three levels of functioning: (i) individual (e.g. psychological, physical, neurobiological); (ii) social (e.g. social cohesion, parental support) and (iii) community/society (e.g. support systems, institutional and economic factors).

The session would be an open dialogue between the panellists and audience. Through this session’s plenary discussion, we share use cases of how building protective factors which wrap around the individual, creating supportive (social) networks in communities and how societal and economic factors, can affect mental health and well-being, linking back to how we develop promotion and prevention staging.

Our panellists represent perspectives of those with lived experiences, community partners with advocacy roles, employers in the workplace and practitioners who support those in recovery. They will discuss what it means to form a circle of care where the individual can work and live well in the community.

TRACK SYNOPSIS

Gen Z – the generation of people born after 1995 – is set to form about 1/3 of the workforce in the next decade. Much has been said about how generational differences can influence human behaviour and team dynamics – with attendant consequences on the effective functioning of healthcare teams, workplaces and healthcare systems.

 How can we understand, engage and inspire the new generation of healthcare professionals to ensure the future of safe, high-quality care? In an age where many workplace interactions are mediated via technology, how do we build relationships with our Gen Z colleagues and learners to help transform healthcare?

This interactive session, featuring a facilitated panel discussion with speakers drawn from education research and practice, will take a theoretically grounded yet pragmatic approach that will encompass:

• Who: understanding the new generation of healthcare professionals: their needs, values and workplace behaviours
• What: ways of engaging the new generation of healthcare professionals
• How: building coaching and mento

The session is targeted at healthcare professionals who work with, have supervisory relationships over, or teach / train younger colleagues. Equally, we welcome our Gen Z colleagues to join us, to contribute to the ongoing discourse on how we can forge a better understanding of “what makes us tick” and how our disparate experiences can be harnessed to build a better healthcare system for all.

SYMPOSIUM SYNOPSIS

With Singapore’s strategic move towards Healthier SG, social determinants of health have gained increasing recognition in its important role in impacting health outcome as we move from “sick care” to preventative healthcare. In the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health biopsychosocial framework, the built environment and other environmental factors in particular has been recognized as a key factor in determining function and health. During this symposium, we will hear from both local and international speakers starting with a plenary talk followed by a panel discussion representing diverse viewpoints on how the built environment can play a big part in making Singapore a healthier society to live, work and play in.

TRACK SYNOPSIS

As a follow on to Symposium 3, we will be hearing different projects and ideas from a diverse group of speakers representing different viewpoints (academic, clinician, policymaker) on how the built environment can play a critical role to play in health outcomes.

TRACK SYNOPSIS

Transforming for the future of health is a journey that will require collective effort. In this endeavour, every improvement and innovation count towards this collective vision regardless of sophistication – from frugal point-of-care innovation to cutting edge technologies. In the plethora of trending technologies, how do we stay clear headed to make the right technological application instead of force fitting technology into your challenge? Understanding users of these innovations are pivotal to reap full benefits of your innovation in a sustainable way.

The health design thinking workshop aims to introduce you the principles and methodologies of design thinking in the context of healthcare. Participants will learn the importance of designing solution through a human-centred approach with empathy. They are encouraged to think creatively and explore solutions beyond conventional boundaries to foster creative confidence. Participants will experience the process of conducting user research, identify user needs, generate ideas and prototype their solution to a design challenge.

In addition, the workshop will also emphasize the importance of collaboration and teamwork in developing impactful healthcare solutions. We envision this platform to offer opportunities for networking, knowledge exchange and future collaborations among participants through creative confidence gained in the workshop.

TRACK SYNOPSIS

With the national move towards improving population health, value-based care and community enabling, as TTSH celebrates jubilee 50th Year of Rehabilitation Centre services this year, we hope to evolve our services and integrate rehabilitation needs from hospital to community through forming strong partnerships and aligning practices to bring quality rehabilitation to all affected individuals. We also hope to build an ecosystem of innovation where clinicians, therapists and researchers could collaborate in design and co-development of enabling technologies, testbed and validate novel devices and eventually evolve care of providing cost effective rehabilitation technologies through care continuum. Through these with continual investment in research and education will we achieve rehabilitation excellence in tertiary care, academic health and relevant to current population health needs.

Hence, this track will focus on the following:

• Every Moment Rehabilitation Moment Care Philosophy & Enablers: why this is necessary, philosophy for rehabilitation professionals and patients/caregivers to enable rehabilitation moments anytime, anywhere and by anyone and how innovative programs aided by enabling technologies are designed and developed to fulfil this
• Rehab Excellence by Community Partners
• Rehab Research/Innovation Partnerships with Academia/Industry
• Panel discussion on “Achieving Rehabilitation Excellence in a Population Health Focus Post Pandemic World”

In local context, there is limited data on the nutritional status of our community dwellers and minimal nutritional screening done in the community. Malnutrition is a serious problem among elderly as it is known to be closely associated with higher mortality and morbidity rates, physical decline, fatigue, reduced quality of life and increased healthcare cost.

NutriCaRe (improving Nutrition and hydration, enhancing Care and Recovery) workflow was introduced by community nurse and dietitian to identify residents in the community who are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition and commence early appropriate nutritional interventions. Thereby, preventing complications of malnutrition as well as to improve their health status and sense of well-being.

This workshop aims to equip participants with basic knowledge to identify malnutrition risks through nutrition screening and being aware of some strategies to improve nutritional intake.
In this workshop, learners will have opportunities to apply their learnt knowledge to various case scenarios and role play.

The workshop also intends to highlight the importance of collaboration, coordination and teamwork, to get everyone on board to this ‘Mission Possible Project’ and walk together towards Healthier SG.

TRACK SYNOPSIS

This 90-minute panel will discuss key trends in the use of digital health technologies in Singapore as well as globally and explore how health professionals can leverage these technologies to improve patient care and population health. The panel will feature 4 experts who will share their experiences working with digital health technologies in various upstream and downstream medical care settings, followed by a Q&A session.

Topics covered may include gamification in health technologies (Theng Yin Leng, NTU), digital/mobile rehabilitation robotics (Nicole Wenderoth, Singapore ETH Zurich Centre), telehealth and community care (Gan Teng Fong, FullHealth), and interactive environment design focusing on disability and neurodiversity (Rachel Chen, NTU).

TRACK SYNOPSIS

This innovation-focused track brings together experts, leaders and industry pioneers from both healthcare and technology sectors to explore the latest advancements, trends, and breakthroughs in the field of Medtech and Biotech. Through the track, attendees will gain valuable insights into the innovation and enterprise ecosystem within healthcare. Attendees will also hear from innovators working on cutting edge technologies which are revolutionising patient care, diagnosis, treatment, and healthcare delivery.

Participants will have the opportunity to engage in interactive panel discussions. They will gain insights on emerging trends such in medtech, biotech and digital technology. This track will emphasise on the importance of collaboration between clinicians, scientists and industry experts in the end-to-end creation of medtech and biotech solutions.

TRACK SYNOPSIS

Diabetes mellitus (DM), characterized by elevated blood glucose, is a heterogeneous condition. Majority of people with DM has type 2 DM (T2D). T2D has many faces (i.e., sub-phenotypes). Hence, subtyping T2D into actionable subgroups may be clinically meaningful.

Using classifiers that capture the key biology of T2D (age-onset, BMI, HBA1c, insulin resistance and β-cell reserve), we generated 3 major sub-phenotypes of T2D among Asian with recently diagnosed diabetes. The 3 major subtypes are: Severe insulin resistant diabetes (SIRD), Mild obesity diabetes (MOD) and Mild age-related diabetes (MARD).

These 3 subtypes of T2D showed disparate genetic-susceptibility burden and lipidomics profile. Importantly, they also showed differential long-term cardio-renal trajectories.

Guided by their clinical profile, each subtype of T2D may be considered preferentially for intervention strategies, customized to their underlying biology. For instance, intensive weight management to induce diabetes remission among MOD; intensive cardio-renal retardation for SIRD and multi-domain interventions to ameliorate sarcopenia among MARD. Sub-phenotyping T2D will also facilitate the precision adoption of horizontal care-capabilities e.g., psycho-social-behavioural interventions, diabetes-education, digital-health, biomarkers-discovery etc.

However, all models are wrong. Some are useful. The panellists will share their views on the strength and weaknesses of sub-phenotyping T2D for precision care.

Venous leg ulceration (VLU) is closely related to chronic venous insufficiency, and it affects up to 3 in 1000 people. Prevalence increases with age to about 20 in 1000 people over the age of 80 years. Compression bandage remained the gold standard for management of VLU. In Singapore, majority of multi-layer compression bandages are performed by specialist wound nurses in a hospital outpatient setting. Depending on the condition of VLUs, the treatment plans could demand burdensome weekly reviews which in turn increases transport costs, extensive time off from work etc.

A recent survey of VLUs in Tan Tock Seng Hospital found that about 80% of patients with VLUs would benefit from management at community facilities. Besides proximity to homes, it would increase self-care compliance, thereby improving healing outcomes and reducing overall costs.

This workshop discusses how capability in nursing VLU care in the community can benefit VLU patients. It adopts co-learning and skills demonstration to deepen understanding. Participants will have opportunities to interact with nursing VLU experts. We anticipate much interest from community partners and are expecting stronger connections to explore better accessibility and outcomes for the VLU patient population.