American fitness wearables company, Fitbit, announced a collaboration with Singapore’s Health Promotion Board (HPB) on 23 August 2019 on a healthy population project in support of Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative. HPB is a Singapore government agency that aims to promote healthy living in Singapore.
Singapore is facing a rise in chronic conditions such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes and cancer. This initiative aims to leverage technology to help improve population health, by driving behavior change. Fitbit was selected through a competitive call for collaboration. This is Fitbit’s first major integration of a digital health platform and wearables into a national public health program globally. The initiative, named Live Healthy SG, has been designed for Singapore by Fitbit and HPB to harness technology, behavior insights and analytics to help Singaporeans get healthier through meaningful and sustained behavior change.
Singaporeans will be able to pre-register for Live Healthy SG starting mid-September, and the program will officially go live in late October 2019. The program aims to reach one million people. Participants who subscribe for one year of Fitbit Premium service at SGD 10 (USD 7.3) per month will receive a free fitness tracker. The program will also leverage Fitbit’s services, including programs, guidance and individual 1:1 health coaching that will be offered through its new Premium service to be launched in select markets around the world later this year. Participants will receive a personalized experience, helping to motivate them to adopt healthier habits and achieve better outcomes in the areas of physical activity, sleep, nutrition and emotional wellbeing.
Under the partnership, HPB will leverage its outreach channels to support Fitbit in encouraging participation in its program. When participants sign on to the Fitbit program, there will also be a clear and seamless consent process to indicate if they agree to share their data during the program with the HPB. Such data will, in turn, provide insights and contribute to more health promotion programs that will benefit many Singaporeans. This data could provide detailed population insights to inform future health programs. This would enable HPB to explore other opportunities in precision public health, providing interventions to the right population at the right time.
(Sources: Business Times; Fitbit)
