The issue

The rapidly ageing local population in Hong Kong leads to snowballing demand for medical care and enduring work force shortage in hospitals. Prevention is better than cure — preventing the preventable relieves suffering for patients and their families as well as pressure on the healthcare system. This rings particularly true when most chronic diseases in the elderly are indeed avertible. Given a self-administrable test and appropriate follow-up advice, we can all play a proactive part in monitoring our health conditions.

The solution

Building on his expertise in digital health and big data, Prof Kelvin Tsoi started up DeepHealth as an extension of his KPF project. The team has developed their first software solution – a digital screening platform that identifies several symptoms for dementia, including memory, orientation, attention, and calculation as well as comprehension and abstraction. Users need only to answer a few questions or draw something on their mobile devices, and the whole process will be captured real-time for further analysis, completely free of supervision from healthcare professionals. The platform then matches users with non-pharmacological interventions and activities according to their assessment results.

The team has also put together an app for blood pressure data recording and analysis.

Impact

Riding on the advancement of smartphones and wearable gadgets, Deephealth is empowering people to make sense of their digital health data, while taking proactive actions and making lifestyle changes in maintaining their health. By enabling self-monitoring of health aspects which previously necessitates visits to doctors, DeepHealth is transforming the traditional disease curing model into a proactive prevention approach in promoting public health.

Beneficiaries

– Adults aged 40 to early 60s

– Other health-conscious individuals

Project Team