Singapore denies Ki to cope with the health of the fast-aging population
A mural that Samsui women in Chinatown represents in Singapore.
Edwin Koo | Getty pictures
From hearing aids that recognize falls to “patient sites” systems in hospitals and robots that help with movement in nursing homes, Singapore is looking for artificial intelligence to cope with the health of its older population.
A quarter of the Singaporer will be 65 years or older by 2030 – in 2010 the number of 10 – and it is estimated that around 6,000 nurses and nursing staff have to be hired annually to reach the health employees in Singapore.
According to Chuan de Foo, a scientific scholarship holder at the Sawe Hock School of Public Health from Singapore, the technology is urgently needed to close the care in Singapore and elsewhere. Companies all over the world are “bleak unprepared” for an aging population, Foo wrote last month within the borders of the Science Journal and, with its co-authors AI and other technologies, described as “crucial forces with the potential to drive a paradigm shift in health care”.
For Foo, artificial intelligence in Singapore will play a “big” role in older care in Singapore, both with regard to the treatment of clinicians not acute conditions and monitoring of administrative tasks such as monitoring the availability of hospital beds, he said in an email to CNBC. “Since older people in Singapore are more versed, we see that they turn to telecons and digital tools that use AI technology,” he said.
AI is also used to recognize diseases beforehand, an area of ​​personal interest for Dr. Han Ei Chew, a scientific fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. He said that the diabetics disease of his late mother could have been diagnosed and treated if KI test methods had previously been available than she was alive as it is now. “It would have been so useful when the family went through this trip,” said Chew to CNBC by phone.
According to Chew, a big focus for Singapore is in position. “We can use the AI, but it is not about replacing human care completely … It is really about helping the supervisors and helping seniors to remain independent and aged,” he told CNBC by video call.
Chew said that the Singapore apartment and development committee even offers an integrated home technology to see when someone falls. A warning that was sent to the relatives of a resident or is connected to a call center for help.
This type of surveillance technology must be used carefully, Chew said in every jurisdiction that they are used. “The AI ​​should enable the seniors and do not remove them.
A “co-pilot” care
It's not just Singapore who wants to use AI for older care. In the United States, Sessi.ai is a rapidly growing “Care Co-Pilot” that monitors older people who use audio devices that are normally connected to three areas of their houses.
The co -founder and CEO of companies, Romi Gubers, said that the technology could provide the caregivers more than 100 different knowledge and draw attention to early signs of urinary tract or respiratory infections or falls or cognitive decline. “We combine several indicators that come from audio,” Guberes told CNBC by video call. “Think about the respiratory infection, for example. This will [take into account] The coughing frequency of cough, the frequency, the type of cough together with … symptoms about fever, dizziness, ”she said.
When Senssi.ai is installed in a house, a “baseline” will be created for over two weeks, with a number of “acoustic indicators” being found, Guberes, including non -verbal sounds, said, such as objects moved, steps or snoring that combines with the clinical knowledge of his team. As soon as the AI ​​knows the base noises in a house, it can draw the supervisors aware of all audio anomalies that may indicate a health problem.
According to Gube, Senssi is used by “tens of thousands” by seniors in the United States, and a spokesman said that the company was in discussions about potential expansion in Asia.
Ageusm in Ai
The experts CNBC spoke to warned that AI must be used carefully in terms of health care.
Foo warned that the use of AI in consultations could lead to “poorer health results”, since not all older people can use technology, and he warned that it must be developed correctly to avoid “digital ageism”. In fact, the World Health Organization warned: “The implicit and explicit prejudices of society, including age, are often replicated in AI technologies”, and their directive letter from 2022 asked the developers to take part in the design of new technologies.
In Singapore, the government's “Action Plan for Successful Aging” describes its goals, e.g.
Foo said, however, that the seniors' opinions would have to be taken into account in order to determine how AI can satisfy their health needs. “Like all new initiatives, failure will be inevitable if the target group, i.e. older people, are not on board. We [need] to hear their voices and to agree to the national health AI strategy to their needs without eliminating the human element of health care. That is the challenge, “he said CNBC via e -mail.
For Chew, the approach to older care must mix people and machines and described as a “high -tech but high touch”. “The AI ​​is probably best used as additional eyes, ears and robots [are an] Additional hands, but not as a replacement for high human care, “he said.
