Singapore’s NHG Cares App uses AWS to support a healthier population

The National Healthcare Group (NHG) is a leader in public healthcare in Singapore and is recognized for delivering high-value patient care. Its clinical services are provided through an integrated system of polyclinics, acute care tertiary hospitals, community hospitals, national specialty centers, and community-based care centers.

As the regional health manager for 1.5 million residents in central and north Singapore, NHG collaborates with private general practices, public and community health, and social care providers to keep residents healthy.

Aligned with the nation’s Healthier SG strategy, NHG aims to address the challenge of the aging population and improve population health by empowering residents to own their health. It has collaborated with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to develop an intuitive and engaging mobile application called the NHG Cares App, which engages residents and spurs them to take charge of their health through personalized care plans, wellness coaching, health and social care programs, digital health education resources, and many other healthcare services.

How NHG Cares App uses AWS to support the care journey of patients and residents

Through the NHG Cares App, residents can access their personalized care plan to view and track the progress of their healthcare interventions and monitor vital signs. Healthcare-related transactions, usually done in person at a healthcare institution, can also be performed through the app. This includes scheduling medical appointments, requesting medication refills, and making bill payments.

With the app, residents can also access Health Kampung, a marketplace of more than 1,000 health and social care programs, to select their preferred activities. The ability to manage their personal health and make informed decisions for their own well-being is backed by insightful information from credible and easy-to-access sources.

The NHG Cares App is designed on a cloud-centered and microservices architecture and is developed using AWS managed and serverless services. It uses Amazon Cognito and Amazon API Gateway for authentication and authorization. Amazon CloudFront is used to distribute static and media content to users with low latency. These media are stored in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). AWS Fargate and Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) are used in their microservices application, allowing the application to scale dynamically based on user demand. This approach improves cloud operational posture by shifting the management of underlying infrastructure resources to AWS. Amazon Aurora, a distributed and fault-tolerant storage system, is used for data storage. By taking advantage of these AWS Cloud-centered services, the NHG Cares App is designed to be secure and operationally resilient.

NHG’s partnership with AWS has enabled the healthcare system to enhance patients’ health and wellness journeys through the NHG Cares app. The resiliency and security of the AWS technology stack used to power the app has improved user experience and significantly reduced the time it takes to launch new features. This flexibility enables NHG to better accommodate the growing needs of its patients and empower them to take greater ownership of their health and wellness.

How NHG Cares App offers social prescribing solutions for GPs

Through the NHG Cares App, general practitioners (GPs) and community partners can offer social prescribing solutions to the residents. GPs can engage more effectively with the residents to develop personalized health plans that include lifestyle adjustments, regular health screenings, and appropriate vaccinations.

GPs can recommend activities offered by app partners such as the Health Promotion Board, People’s Association, and Sport Singapore. They can even connect residents to a social service agency or an active aging center near their homes. The integrated health and social care support provided to the residents helps them to stay on top of their health goals and potentially prevent chronic conditions.

“The NHG Cares App is a timely addition to NHG’s digital transformation efforts and demonstrates our commitment to creating a single digital front door and One Service Experience for residents, patients, and caregivers. The app will help us drive population health even further in our region, together with our GP and community partners, by making comprehensive health and social interventions more accessible,” said Eugene Fidelis Soh, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer of Population Health at NHG.

“Since the launch of the app, we have observed a good number of downloads, which bears testament to our residents’ growing interest in accessing health and healthcare digitally and benefitting from the many features and services available to them via our app.”

Driving transformation in healthcare with AWS

The healthcare industry is moving from an episodic care model to one focusing on residents’ well-being throughout their life. Digital technologies can lead to improvements for both healthcare providers and residents by increasing efficiency, improving residents’ experience, and enhancing engagement between healthcare providers and residents. AWS has worked with thousands of enterprises globally to drive transformation in the healthcare industry. For more information about how AWS assists in critical healthcare missions around the globe, visit the AWS for Healthcare & Life Sciences hub or contact the AWS Public Sector Team.