Singapore’s Centre for Healthcare Innovation launches initiatives to improve community care

CHI’s HSC Academy and Evaluation Framework complement the Healthier SG initiative. 

The Centre for Healthcare Innovation (CHI) in Singapore has launched two initiatives aimed at boosting community-level health and social care in the city-state through upskilling and innovation of digital solutions.

CHI introduced the Health and Social Change Academy (HSC Academy) that will train over 30 local and foreign experts from the academe, health and social care and other related agencies to develop the skills needed to build and sustain Communities of Care (CoCs).

HSC Academy will offer four programmes including a scheme that teaches about the funding systems and incentives driving population health initiatives, and another one where participants can learn the importance of aligning the health and social services based on community needs. The other two programmes focus on fostering collaborations and in rolling out large scale change movements.

“It (Academy’s curriculum) aims to nurture the environment for various stakeholders to come together to understand one another’s roles in the community, learn the new skills and concepts and take collective action to design care that will keep our people and future generations healthier and happier,” said Wong Hon Tym, clinical director at CHI. 

CHI also set up the Digital Coc Playground sandbox to pave the way for collaborations on digital solutions that engage residents to adopt healthy behaviors. 

Issues raised by community partners will be brought to the Digital Playground, allowing CHI to match them with the necessary organisation, sponsors, technology experts, and funding agents to help create a digital CoC solution.    

To help mitigate risk and assess the innovation’s effectiveness in real world deployment, CHI also introduced an Evaluation Framework which recommends best-practice methods to optimise design of trials, ensure reliable results, and provide cost-benefit analysis.

The initiatives complement the Healthier SG - a national initiative by Singapore’s Ministry of Health that focuses on preventive and population health.