A team of clinicians and researchers from the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (AMC) and pharmaceutical firm GSK are conducting a study to improve the care of Singapore's asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.

The $1.2 million study aims to create a database for research into respiratory diseases by accelerating the digitisation and integration of records of patients who suffer from asthma and COPD - a serious disease that limits airflow to the lungs.

The researchers will be using the data to create electronic dashboards to track the management of patients with asthma and COPD, such as the risk of hospital readmission and treatment plans, for healthcare institutions to use.

The dashboards will enable healthcare professionals to predict the outcomes and risks of the two diseases, and hence improve intervention and patient education.

The dashboards will be available for healthcare institutions such as the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and SingHealth Polyclinics to use.