SAP in networked care pilot in Singapore

• To improve care for geriatric patients, pilot to run H1 2016
• App to connect advocacy and healthcare communities to families

 
SAP SE and Sierra Solutions have announced a partnership with local social enterprise and interest group ACE Seniors to pilot a project to improve the quality of care provided to geriatric patients in Singapore.
 
The pilot includes the participation of local care organisations including Alzheimer’s Disease Association Singapore (ADA), Centre For Seniors (CFS), AWWA, and Metta Alumni Care (Metta), SAP said in a statement.
 
The core of the pilot is a networked care application called eCareApp, built by Sierra Solutions on SAP’s Hana Cloud Platform for iPhones, which SAP described as being similar to a private social network.
 
The app, which will be available on the App Store, helps carers and their families connect with advocacy and healthcare programmes which provide best practices in self-care and caregiving.
 
This service helps create healthier lives by enabling communities and empowering families to care for each other, SAP claimed.
 
By 2030, 565 million Asians will be aged 65 years or older, up from 300 million now, SAP said.
 
Singapore is experiencing an unprecedented age shift as post-war baby boomers turn 65 and more than a quarter of the current citizen population retires from the workforce and enters their silver years.
 
“Because Singapore is ageing, there will be more people suffering from maladies like dementia and Alzheimer’s, and more caregivers struggling to care for their loved ones,” said SAP’s Asia Pacific healthcare director Andy David.
 
“Innovations like Networked Care can empower family members to better care for patients affordably and efficiently,” he added.
 
Through the pilot, which will run in the first half of 2016, five to 10 family groups from each of the local care organisations will trial the app which provides Singapore-specific resources, expert content and family-centric insights on age-related illnesses such as dementia.
 
“We want to alleviate the burden on family members who are caring for ageing relatives, by creating a connected support network that can help families provide better care for those with age-related illnesses,” said ACE Seniors executive chairman Dr Bee Wan Tan.
 
“The Networked Care pilot brings the care network onto a single online platform where users can gain instant access to expert opinions, best practices on caregiving, as well as share their experiences with other family members who are faced with the same situation.”
 
Networked Care helps people learn about a family member's condition, share knowledge, and track daily progress.
 
The app also provides a platform to publish best practices and allows people to collaborate through a private journal to take preventative action and track daily progress, according to SAP.
 
“Our partnership with SAP, through the SAP OEM Partner Programme, has been integral … and our decision to use the Hana Cloud platform provides us with an easy to deploy and flexible platform, with enterprise-grade capabilities,” said Sierra Solutions chief executive officer Ranjan Vaswani.
 
“Moving forward, we look forward to working with our partners to extend availability of the app to additional countries across Asia including India, Thailand and Japan,” he added.
 
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