Supported by a newly awarded S$25 million grant from the National Research Foundation, Singapore and the Singapore Ministry of Health’s National Medical Research Council , Project RESET will bring together NUS Medicine, NUHS, NUHCS, National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS), National Heart Research Institute Singapore (NHRIS), Duke-NUS Medical School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), A*STAR’s Bioinformatics Institute (BII), Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), as well as industry and community partners, to study and implement the best ways to tackle heart disease in Singapore.

More than 10,000 Singaporeans will be invited to participate in the project, and have their heart, liver and metabolism assessed. Of these participants, 3,000 will be selected for a five-year follow-up programme where new technologies will be deployed and piloted.

Launched by Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Health, on 27 September 2023, Project RESET is one of the initiatives that will be piloted at Health District @ Queenstown, where the study team will work closely with policymakers, urban planners and community leaders to create spaces that support the community’s physical, social and mental well-being, and reduce environmental factors that contribute to heart disease.

One in 100 Singaporeans will have a heart attack in 2050. Researchers say that the upward projected heart attack trajectory can be halted by reducing upstream metabolic risks through the early detection and treatment of subclinical diseases, such as high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol, in vulnerable groups. Nationwide programmes focused on strengthening heart health can also potentially critically change the course of cardiovascular disease deaths.