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SINGAPORE \u2013 A comprehensive, lifelong shift towards preventive care is essential to close the health-span gap for women.<\/p>\n
This is critical as women are living longer than men<\/span><\/a>, but spending a significantly larger portion of those extra years in ill health.<\/p>\n Making these comments at a panel discussion on Oct 8, Jill Biden, chair of the Milken Institute Women\u2019s Health Network, called for a comprehensive medical road map that guides women through every stage of life.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen really want a road map about where their health is, where it\u2019s going, and that should really start when women get their first periods, and then all through till the end of life,\u201d she said, noting that female biology is under-researched.<\/p>\n As the former first lady of the US, she had spearheaded the White House Initiative on Women\u2019s Health Research to advance federal funding.<\/p>\n The panel, moderated by executive vice-president of health from the Milken Institute Esther Krofah, took place at the 13th Milken Institute Asia Summit at the Four Seasons Hotel in Singapore.<\/p>\n Reflecting on her own experience, Biden recalled her own frustration navigating menopause three decades ago, when clear medical guidance was sparse and the topic was taboo.<\/p>\n She said conditions like osteoporosis must be addressed earlier<\/span><\/a> through proactive education and targeted care.<\/p>\n Singapore\u2019s Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, who was in conversation with Biden, positioned the nation as a potential reference model for putting solutions into practice.<\/p>\n \u201cSingapore can be that urban environment that will provide that test bed that makes things work,\u201d he said, hoping that the industry would then find gender-specific research and prevention worth investing in.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you\u2019re focused on healthy longevity, you will recognise that women have a bigger challenge because biologically women have… a lot more health vulnerabilities than men,\u201d Ong said.<\/p>\n He said \u201cthe tide has changed\u201d and there will be more focus on women\u2019s healthcare in the future.<\/p>\n Ong said that in Singapore, women live to an average age of 84, but spend 12 years in ill health compared with less than 10 years for men.<\/p>\n The panellists also discussed the prevalence of sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss, and that more education is needed to address it.<\/p>\n Translating this need into policy, Ong had said earlier this week that they plan to offer screening tests for osteoporosis and sarcopenia through general practitioner clinics under Singapore\u2019s preventive health programme, Healthier SG. This roll-out ensures that individuals requiring early intervention can be identified.<\/p>\n Once identified, the individuals can be referred to active ageing centres where they can access coaches, fitness training, and weightlifting, without having to sign up for an expensive gym package, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cPreventive health and population health has to be made accessible. It is not in the clinic; it is in the community. It\u2019s in homes,\u201d said Ong.<\/p>\n Besides muscular and bone health, Singapore has also expanded its preventive framework to combat life-threatening hereditary diseases.<\/p>\n The nation will subsidise genetic testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer from December 2026, while allowing MediShield Life and MediSave to offset the costs of risk-reducing surgeries.<\/p>\n These targeted moves align with a broader shift in the country\u2019s healthcare focus towards preventive, predictive and personalised care. Unlike countries where healthcare spending eats up 10% to 17% of gross domestic product, Singapore currently spends roughly 4.5% of its GDP on healthcare. Ong said this gives Singapore the fiscal headroom to split resources between acute hospital care and preventive care.<\/p>\n In closing, Biden urged the audience to do something to move women\u2019s health forward, be it through targeted investments, personal learning or educating others about it.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing forward, you know, we can have all these conversations, but we\u2019re going to be remembered is by the changes and the improvements we make now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 A comprehensive, lifelong shift towards preventive care is essential to close the health-span gap for women. This is critical as women are living…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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