Singapore Invests $10 Million For Senior Living Initiatives
The Singapore Government is tripling funding support for the Silver Community Test Bed Programme to $10 million over the next two years.
The funding support is for innovative and affordable solutions, which enable seniors to live and remain in the community, across the health and social care continuum.
The third grant call for proposals was launched today and focuses on “Enabling Community Healthcare and Wellness”. The call will provide funding support for innovative and affordable solutions, which enable seniors to live and remain in the community, across the health and social care continuum.
Supported for the first time by EDB-MOH Health & Wellness Programme Office (HWPO), this is a key step in Singapore’s whole-of-government approach to develop innovative healthcare technologies, products and services for the silver community. The Programme presents a unique platform for companies to test and develop their health and wellness innovations at proof-of-concept stage in public hospitals, community hospitals, elder care facilities and public households.
“Seniors generally desire to live independently at home and we hope to live a life that is integrated with our family, friends and community. HDB’s recent Sample Household Survey indicated that more than half of our seniors preferred to live with or close to their children, and seniors have become more active and engaged in the community, compared to a decade ago. As the world ages, the global demand for solutions to enable seniors with care needs to live at home, integrate care across the hospital-to-home settings and manage their own health will grow very rapidly.” says Mr Lim Boon Heng, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.
“With the economy of Singapore evolving into one based on Research Innovation and Enterprise there will be many opportunities to develop unique solutions in many fields for the world market. One of these fields is health care. With a fast ageing population, Singapore has to find solutions that will help seniors to have a higher quality of life at an affordable cost. This demand can best be met by the rapid conversion of results from research being done in our tertiary institutions and research institutes into innovative products and services by our industries. Test-bedding will prove that these products and services can work and be of value to seniors. Products and services that will be successful in Singapore will also be able to meet Asia’s fast-growing healthcare needs. We are committed to work with companies to co-develop innovative solutions for Singaporeans and the region at large, and the Silver Community Test-Bed Programme is one key platform,” says Prof Lui Pao Chuen, Chairman, Silver Community Testbed Programme Evaluation Panel.
The grant call is open to companies and institutions. Submitted proposals will be evaluated by a panel co-chaired by Prof Lui Pao Chuen and Ms Chong Siak Ching, President and CEO of Ascendas.
About the Silver Community Test Bed Programme
The Silver Community Test Bed Programme offers a platform for companies, public agencies and educational institutions to test-bed age-friendly assistive devices and products in a real-life home setting. MCYS had provided seed funding to facilitate the test-bed process for the 1st and 2nd grant calls. The first two calls focused on “Home Monitoring Systems” and “Design-driven Products” and provided a chance for participating seniors to experience state-of-the-art technology.
About Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS)
The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) aims to strengthen the nation’s social fabric by fostering resilience and integration among people in Singapore. Our policies and programmes seek to strengthen the three pillars of our society – the individual, the family, and the community. Our aim is for individuals and communities to become self-reliant and develop a strong sense of social responsibility.
About EDB-MOH Health and Wellness Programme Office (HWPO)
The EDB-MOH Health and Wellness Programme Office (HWPO) is a joint initiative between Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and Ministry of Health, Singapore (MOH). HWPO seeks to further enhance Singapore’s healthcare system while driving innovations through key platforms that promote public-private partnerships to accelerate companies’ development of future solutions today. Through these innovation partnerships, HWPO seeks to entrench Singapore as a sophisticated lead market to develop more effective systems and solutions that can address unmet healthcare needs in Asia and global markets. For more info, please visit www.sedb.com/healthcare.
ABOUT THE THIRD GRANT CALL
The third grant call will be open to technologies that pilot innovations to support the following three areas:
Home / Community-based care
- Elder friendly products to support independent living
- Assistive Technology to enable self care
- Home nursing
Chronic disease management
- Remote monitoring of patients
- Enabling technology for right-siting of care
Integration of care
- Telemedicine
PREVIOUSLY SUPPORTED PROJECTS
Pixie Engine Alert Device by Human Network Labs Singapore
The project is about a first-responder emergency management system capable of identifying the location of an elderly and allowing the elderly to send an alert during an emergency to a response centre. As the device can provide the precise location of an individual, it can function as a monitoring device for caregivers of seniors with dementia. In addition, because the system uses a mobile phone-based application, it can be used for social networking to create an online support network for the elderly.
The company is working with O’Joy Care Services to testbed the system with elderly households in Upper Boon Keng Road.
Healthy Play by Portege
Portege develops the total solution of Healthy Play, which includes wearable interaction system, interactive games and a web portal to support a network based play. It is able to bring the outdoor exercise or sports into the bedroom of the elderly and promote active aging and social networking to the seniors’ community through the game network. The seniors could wear devices which could sense their motions to play the games and the games are able to connect them and their friends over the Internet, and also serve as a guidance of doing exercise in such a way that the game could record the amount of exercise daily.
The company has conducted testbedding in HDB households and NTUC Eldercare.
Silver Sentinel System by Reanex Technologies
Reanex develops the Silver Sentinel. It is an intelligent, ubiquitous and non-intrusive monitoring system to monitor the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) of seniors living along using a combination of low-cost sensors, advanced mesh networking technologies and profile-based anomaly detection engine. The system is designed to be a non-intrusive guardian system that will provide supervisory service to give children/caregiver peace of mind when they are not at home with the Senior. Through the anomaly detection engine, the system provides an indication to the children/caregiver that something is not normal at home based on the usual behavioural patterns of the Senior. Upon reception of the alert, the children/caregiver can follow up with a phone call or other actions to establish the cause of the abnormality.
The company is developing the system prototype and will conduct testbedding in HDB households.
Topics: 2010, Active Ageing Committees, aging, behaviour, business, elderly, exercise, Governance, government, health care, healthcare, healthy, information, innovation, memorandum of understanding, moniter, monitor, National Wellness Programme, news, older adults, Potong Pasir, Public Sector, quit smoking, research, science, senior citizens, senior living initiatives, seniors, silver market, Singapore, social networks, socially engages, society, sustainable development, technology, Third Age, well-being, wellness
Print This Article in Plain Text
|
|
Latest Headlines
- Osama Bin Laden Dead?
- Florida To Share $1 Billion For Gulf Coast Restoration Efforts
- Texas Prays For Rain During Extreme Drought Conditions
- Governor Christie Takes Action To Reduce Diesel Emissions, Improve Air Quality
- Governor McDonnell Outlines Draft Transportation Improvement Program
- Alaska Energy Bill Passes Legislature
- Illinois State Building Receives ENERGY STAR Award
- Homeland Security Begins Using National Terrorism Advisory System
- U.S. Outlines New Health Insurance Options For Graduating College Students
- Electrolux Expands In North Carolina, To Create 200 Jobs In Charlotte
- Virginia Storm Victims To Receive Tax Extension
- U.S. Expands Broadband Investment For Rural Areas To Accelerate Job Creation
- U.S. To Invest $130 Million For Advanced Energy Research
- Michigan Passes “I’m Sorry” Bill
- Kentucky Sells Two State Aircraft To Save Taxpayer Dollars
