In Hong Kong, over 70,000 hospital admissions per year are related to cardio-metabolic problems, including diabetes, stroke and heart diseases. The stroke incidence is higher than other neighbouring regions, including Australia and Japan. Vascular dementia which is due to stroke accounts for around 30% of dementia. Furthermore, these diseases are contributing to the leading causes of deaths.Although the Population Health Survey by Department of Health (2017) found that nearly two-third of the middle-aged group had moderate to high risk of morbidity, the public awareness on self-management remained low. On the other hand, the current healthcare management is largely on reactive basis in secondary prevention subsequent to the disease onset. Health screening and coaching service in the primary healthcare has yet been well established.

Prevention is always better than cure. It is important to increase public awareness towards the metabolic risks to curb the development of chronic conditions. This project brings together the expertise of public health, artificial intelligence, computer sciences and nursing in strengthening the primary healthcare services. Based on medical-social collaboration, we offered a comprehensive health screening, including Automatic Retinal Imaging Analysis (ARIA), point of care tests of blood lipid and blood sugar, and other physiological parameters, to assess the cardio-metabolic risks in physical and mental wellbeing, and professional health coaching through person-centred care approach.

This project aligns with the government initiative to raise public awareness of disease prevention and self-management. Cardio-metabolic risks would result in a range of chronic health problems, including but not limited to stroke, coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, diabetes, and vascular dementia. All these would affect our activities of daily living and quality of life. Hence, proactive health screening and early intervention would prevent or delay the pathophysiological changes, and thereby reduce avoidable non-communicable diseases at individual level and alleviate the pressure on healthcare system at the societal level.

Middle-aged group

2021

Active Ageing, Healthcare, MedTech, Well-being