To overcome these global public health problems, our healthcare systems need to change, to evolve so that they are ready to handle whatever the future may hold. Future Proofing Healthcare initiative was set up and funded by Roche and is independently driven by experts. The independent international experts on Future Proofing Healthcare Panel hold expertise in precision health and genomics, digital health, public health and health strategy.

The initiative, led by a panel of 15 leading healthcare experts across Asia-Pacific, announced the launch of the Asia Pacific Personalized Health Index. This first-of-its-kind, data-driven policy tool measures the readiness of 11 health systems across the region (Australia, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and New Zealand) to adopt personalized healthcare – enabling the right care to be tailored to the right person at the right time.  

The Index and Future Proofing Healthcare initiative, supported by Roche, aim to help stakeholders across health ecosystems understand local, national, and regional strengths and needs, equip country leaders to embrace emerging changes in healthcare, and enable data-driven decision-making that can build future health systems that are fit-for-purpose. The Personalized Health Index measures performance against 27 different indicators of personalized health across four categories called ‘Vital Signs’. These include (1) Policy Context, (2) Health Information, (3) Personalized Technologies, and (4) Health Services. The findings indicate that Singapore performed highest overall of the geographies measured due to a combination of high levels of digital maturity, comprehensive national strategies, a strong digital infrastructure and expansive innovation capacities leading to top scores in both the Health Information and Personalized Technologies categories. Taiwan (2^nd), Japan (3^rd) and Australia (4^th) also perform well in overall readiness. However, the Index reveals that even higher performing countries have numerous areas of opportunity for improvement. Challenges around urban-rural disparities and building digital infrastructure impact lower-scoring territories, several of which are at the very early stages of personalized healthcare.

Personalized healthcare can improve health system efficiencies by helping decision-makers prioritize efforts and resources, and initiate policies and frameworks that support healthcare innovation.