One in three Singapore residents is at risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) during their lifetime. Over 15 per cent of national healthcare expenditure is spent on diabetes care in Singapore, and these costs are expected to escalate.

In part, this is because of the enormous challenges in delivering healthcare effectively to the multi-ethnic patient population in Singapore. Innovations are needed in tailoring diabetes care to suit the needs of the individual patient due to the heterogeneous nature of T2DM.

The overall goal of the DCOF programme is to develop solutions using big data analytics, behavioural economics and digital technology to personalise diabetes care and improve clinical outcomes among multi-ethnic T2DM population in Singapore.

The programme falls under three tracks:

1. Diabetes treatment advisor
Development of a clinical decision support system using online machine learning, optimisation approaches and data optimisation from the SingHealth Diabetes Registry to support physicians with individualised clinical treatment recommendations.

2. Risk stratification & population insights
Time trends analysis of risk factors control and development of models for micro- and macro-vascular disease risk prediction, as well as disease progression at the individual and population levels.

3. Behavioural modifications
Leverage behavioural science and natural language understanding technologies to optimise the design and delivery of targeted sustainable behavioural interventions.

In addition, the DCOF programme will establish a testing facility, named “Diabetes Sandbox”, within the Diabetes & Metabolism Centre at Singapore General Hospital to validate and evaluate the effectiveness of new products and solutions from researchers, start-ups and industry partners in improving the treatment of patients with diabetes.

These products and solutions, if proven to be successful, have the potential for a nation-wide roll-out. The key value proposition of the DCOF programme is better health outcomes for T2DM patients by decreasing the death rate and burden of the disease, as well as lowering healthcare spending for individuals and healthcare systems.