FutureProofing Healthcare initiative, led by a panel of 15 leading healthcare experts across Asia-Pacific, announced the launch of the AsiaPacific Personalised Health Index. This first-of-its-kind, data-driven policy tool measures the readiness of 11 health systems across the region (Australia, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and New Zealand) to adopt personalised healthcare – enabling the right care to be tailored to the right person at the right time.  

The Index is built on robust, publicly available, credible and open-source real-world data supplemented with input from public health authority representatives across APAC and validated by a panel of leading healthcare experts. The Index and FutureProofing Healthcare initiative, supported by Roche, aim to help stakeholders across health ecosystems understand local, national, and regional strengths and needs, equip country leaders to embrace emerging changes in healthcare, and enable data-driven decision-making that can build future health systems that are fit-for-purpose. 

The Personalised Health Index measures performance against 27 different indicators of personalised health across four categories called 'Vital Signs'. These include (1) Policy Context, (2) Health Information, (3) Personalised Technologies, and (4) Health Services. The findings indicate that Singapore performed highest overall of the geographies measured due to a combination of high levels of digital maturity, comprehensive national strategies, a strong digital infrastructure and expansive innovation capacities leading to top scores in both the Health Information and Personalised Technologies categories. Taiwan (2^nd), Japan (3^rd) and Australia (4^th) also perform well in overall readiness. However, the Index reveals that even higher performing countries have numerous areas of opportunity for improvement. Challenges around urban-rural disparities and building digital infrastructure impact lower-scoring territories, several of which are at the very early stages of personalised healthcare. 

“While progress towards personalised healthcare is varied, the Index shows that the APAC region is making strong strides in the right direction – and outlines a clear path for countries to accelerate this transformation. It is encouraging to see many countries already putting in place strategies, policies, and enablers to drive more personalised care, such as electronic health records, health data registries and artificial intelligence,” said Rachel Frizberg, Area Head Asia-Pacific at Roche Pharmaceuticals. 

The Index findings have also been published in a whitepaper “Getting to Personalised Healthcare in APAC” coordinated by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies and informed by expert insights from across AsiaPacific and includes key policy recommendations based on the Index findings to help accelerate this transformation in the region.

Getting to Personalised Healthcare in APAC: Findings, insights and recommendations. https://futureproofinghealthcare.com/knowledge-base/getting-personalised-healthcare-apac

Asia-Pacific Personalised Health Index 2020. https://futureproofinghealthcare.com/asia-pacific-personalisedhealth-index