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The Singapore government has started a collaboration with Apple to promote the adoption of healthier lifestyles and preventive measures. The Health Promotion Council (HPB), which depends on the Singapore Ministry of Health, has developed an application called LumiHealth together with the US company that can be used by all iPhone owners who use an Apple Watch. The project is the first of its kind to cover an entire nation, albeit a city-state of 5.5 million people, and is seen as a preview of plans by Apple and other major tech companies in the country. health sector and medical insurance.
According to the rankings of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international institutions, Singapore has one of the best health systems in the world, organized in a mixed way between public and private. The public part covers all the large expenses related to hospital admissions and numerous therapies, while a mixed system is envisaged for examinations and minor visits, with the payment of some premiums to private insurers.
The new application will be free and available in Singapore from the first days of October. Its development took place with the collaboration of Apple, which yesterday announced a new version of its smart watches capable of detecting the oxygen level in the user’s blood, in addition to a previous function that allows an electrocardiogram to be carried out. In addition to collecting this type of data, Apple Watches track physical activity and provide the ability to enter goals to get more movement.
LumiHealth will do something similar, but is designed to provide specific information on Singapore and the major health issues affecting its population. In addition to providing information and advice to prevent various diseases, the application contains a section to encourage the adoption of healthier habits and lifestyles, by achieving various types of goals. The choice of objectives is made through a virtual assistant and is presented as a game, in which you can challenge other users and win prizes, not just symbolic ones.
(Apple / HPB)
In fact, HPB has allocated funds to offer up to 380 Singapore dollars (about 240 euros) to LumiHealth users who will overcome challenges and achieve particular goals. The prizes, which can be redeemed in the form of coupons to spend in some chain stores, are cumulative over the two years of the program. The competitions will be divided by age, gender and physical form, in order to equalize the challenges between the participants.
The presence of cash prizes should encourage the installation of LumiHealth by a significant number of people, trust local health authorities. In Singapore, around a third of smartphones are iPhones, according to the most recent surveys, and this should reflect positively on the number of participants in the initiative. If the maximum amount is collected, each user could also pay for himself the purchase of a basic version of Apple Watch.
LumiHealth can be used by anyone over 17 years of age and in possession of a SingPass, more or less equivalent to our SPID, to have access to public administration services. The data collected can be shared with the health authorities only with the explicit consent of the users. Information on habits and lifestyles should help HPB understand where to act to improve prevention.
The initiative has received some criticism for having been developed with Apple and therefore not allowing the use of other devices, such as Android smartphones and smartwatches and personal trackers from other companies. The Singapore government explained that it chose Apple for the quantity and quality of data that can be obtained from Apple Watches, but that extensions of the initiative are planned to allow the use of other devices in the future.
For Apple, the Singapore initiative will be useful to evaluate the opportunities that its smart watches provide in the field of health and prevention, in view of the activation of similar programs in other countries, not necessarily with health systems. In the United States, where healthcare is largely private, Apple has already started collaborations with some large health insurers, but has yet to offer specific products and services.
Among observers and analysts it is widely believed that the next big area of interest for US tech companies is healthcare. Apple has a significant advantage over the competition in terms of data detection systems, thanks to the numerous sensors in its Apple Watches (used in various scientific investigations), but other companies such as Google and Amazon could catch up, and quickly.
Alphabet, the holding company that controls Google, last year launched the acquisition of Fitbit, a company specializing in the production of trackers to monitor physical activity and health conditions. Amazon recently announced a new tracker dedicated to health and offering information to promote healthier lifestyles. According to analysts, both companies will take advantage of these products to provide innovative services related to health insurance in the United States, such as the ability to pay insurance premiums in variable amounts, depending on how virtuous they all are in preventing and taking care of themselves.
Apple is geared toward doing something similar, but it has set up its services with a strong focus on communicating privacy protection, which could be an advantage in a sensitive area like collecting health data. The program launched in Singapore is no exception and is seen as a first experiment in the convergence of large technology, individual health and health systems management companies.
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