Innovating for the longevity challenge

Source: The Economist Events. Rashmi Dalai, Managing 
Editor, thought leadership, Asia, The Economist 
Intelligence Unit (EIU) (left) with Blackburn 
(right).

Will the speed of innovation, at its current pace, be enough to meet the longevity challenge? This question was asked in an on-site poll during The Longevity Summit – Is Asia ready for 100? in Singapore, and the majority (60%) of delegates said no.

More than 200 Asian business leaders, government officials and healthcare professionals gathered at the summit to discuss how best to engage Asia’s over-60 population in the productive economy and how stakeholders can foster healthier, longer-living societies. The need for change was clear.

A call for total change

Kanwaljit Soin, Founding President of Women’s Initiative for Ageing Successfully highlighted, "We have to change this linear version of life that exists currently, completely.”

Penny Wan, Regional VP and GM, JAPAC, Amgen, said that the current practice of waiting till people get quite sick before offering a solution is flawed. She said: "Innovate in how we do digital technology. Machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics are enabling us to do routine screening so we can predict and prevent a lot of the diseases especially in the chronic area. We could save hospitals and healthcare systems billions of dollars. It's no longer about adding years to life. It's really about adding life to those years."

Adapting to silver needs

Society will need to adapt to older people working for longer, on their terms. Wilf Blackburn, CEO, Prudential Singapore stated that “it is a myth that older people in Singapore don’t want to reskill and we need to demystify it".

Blackburn shared that in one case people working in a call centre were initially asked for data to train chatbots and later took over the training of chatbots themselves, some going on to train the trainers thereafter. Those others left in the call centre took on the more stimulating work of answering the complicated questions that the chatbots could not answer.

Ecosystem needed

The consensus was that policy makers, financiers, tech companies and scientists need to collaborate if the region is to cope with and benefit from greater longevity.

"The topic of ageing is far too great for any sector to address on its own. We can't do it on our own, we can't do it on just technology. We need an ecosystem and we need different solutions," Wan declared.

The need for more collaboration came through strongly in a panel titled Age of Innovation. Elizabeth Cha, Country Manager, Insilico Taiwan, talked about how AI and deep learning are being harnessed for molecular medicine. 

"We can do cross-comparisons between different communities and behaviours. We can get results quickly and get into validation earlier, find better medicare, or new uses for old medicine," she said.

"We need to find a new way to find the best medical care for the community, especially for longevity issues. Data is important, not just medical data – tissue typing, tests, but we need to analyse data from social behaviour," she added. Cha called on experts from multiple disciplines to collaborate to produce that data.

From left: Dalai; Roy; Wan; Kim; Cha and Tan.

What's hot in healthcare

When it comes to the solutions, Anne Kim, founder and Chief Executive, Alphavita Capital, said that the investment landscape for longevity had expanded from ageing to management of chronic diseases and the lifecycle of patients and customers. High net worth individuals and family businesses are interested in the phenomenon, she said, adding: "We are seeing more interest in broad investments in products, services and innovative business models leveraging technology today."

Specifically, products that improve quality of life as people age are of interest, Kim said. In the services space the focus is on evolving business models for telemedical services and greater access to care; while the shared economy platform approach "to aggregate services and basically balance demand and supply of care" is also popular, she shared.

Tan Hwee-pink, Academic Director, SMU-TCS iCity Lab, Singapore Management University, said that industry-led research projects at the university do involve AI, and identified a further challenge with following up on results. AI could identify seniors at risk for social isolation, or facing physical deterioration, for example. "If nobody knows what to do with that information it is as good as not having that information," he said.

Source: Prudential survey microsite.
Ready for 100 logo.

The Prudential Ready for 100 study

Prudential recently commissioned The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) to survey more than 1,200 residents in Singapore to find out if they are prepared to live long and well as life expectancy rises. Singapore, whose population has reached 5.6 million, will see 900,000 aged over 65 by 2030, and a rising number living to 100, the survey said.

Ready for 100: Preparing for longevity in Singapore found that Singapore residents often understand what they should do to live healthy lives, but may not practise what they preach. 

According to the report, rising longevity will only be a positive experience for Singapore residents if they strengthen various aspects of life, including work. "Technology provides a number of opportunities for people to pursue new industries and provide education and reskilling opportunities, but it is only as useful as the initiative people take. Currently, a proactive attitude at work appears to be lacking. Only four out of ten residents say they actively seek new challenges at work," stated the report.

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