Life Style & Wellness

Chinese hospitals join NUS Medicine’s Big Health Data Project



Hospitals from China will participate in current research in Singapore that aims to develop accurate and personalized solutions for early detection and management of cardiovascular disease symptoms specific to Asian populations.

Early this month, Kailuan General Hospital, Tianjin Medical University and Tianjin Medical University General Hospital signed a memorandum of understanding to join the RESET project of the National University of Singapore Yong Lu Lin School of Medicine.

What’s the matter?

The new RESET Parallel Cohort project will focus specifically on subclinical cardiovascular disease (SCVD), or asymptomatic conditions associated with a high risk of cardiovascular disease that has become a growing concern among the Asian population. Tianjin Medical University is said to have experience in this field of research.

The four organizations will study data from a diverse, multi-ethnic group of Asians using multiple data and big data to discover molecular, metabolic and immunological markers of heart disease. Besides filling gaps in SCVD research, their study will also contribute to the development of “precise and personalized strategies for the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease.”

In addition, the two organizations will conduct trials to test the effectiveness of artificial intelligence and digital health interventions to detect and treat cardiovascular diseases.

The biggest trend

NUS Medicine launched the RESET project in September last year. The five-year research project, funded by the Singaporean government, initially sought to track symptoms of heart disease that go undetected in the majority of Singaporeans. At least 3 million individuals, or half of the island nation’s population, suffer from heart disease without knowing it. Up to 80% of healthy individuals are reportedly unaware of abnormal calcium buildup in their arteries, while around four in 10 suffer from fatty liver, which is also a major sign of heart disease.

The RESET project then aims to discover new biomarkers of early heart disease; It also intends to experiment with new approaches and methods to prevent the onset of cardiovascular diseases.

Other national and private initiatives in Singapore are working to build large databases that represent the diversity of Asian populations, contributing to precision medicine. the The SG100K project, led by the government’s Precision Health Research Foundation, is analyzing big data – sequencing the genomes of 100,000 individuals – to better understand the various factors that contribute to Asian-related non-communicable diseases. Private startup Not my son Created a large multi-omics dataset that helps generate insights into metabolic conditions related to Asian populations.

Outside of Singapore, India has also embarked on a large-scale population initiative, led by the organisation Indian Council of Medical Research, to collect and organize volumes of medical images representative of the Indian population to support the development of artificial intelligence. In September, India’s first comprehensive multi-indicator cancer database was also launched after fifteen years. The Indian Cancer Genome Atlas now provides primary access to clinically annotated data on DNA, RNA and protein profiles of breast cancer patients.

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