Among 30 cities, Singapore ranks 16th in dementia innovation readiness
Singapore has made significant progress in dealing with dementia but still has much room for improvement in areas like detection, according to a new report.
It placed the country in 16th spot among 30 cities in a study that assessed their readiness to promote novel approaches in combating the condition.
While Singapore scored relatively well in areas such as strategy and commitment, it did not do as well in early detection and diagnosis.
The findings from the 2020 Dementia Innovation Readiness Index were released by the United States-based Global Coalition on Ageing, Britain's Alzheimer's Disease International and Singapore's Lien Foundation at a virtual event yesterday.
The best performing city was London, which is known for its progressive policies and practices with regard to dementia care. Glasgow was next, followed by Manchester.
The top performers tended to be in high-income countries with some level of nationalised healthcare and a national plan that helps promote innovation at city level, said a statement accompanying the report.
Tokyo, in seventh place, was the best performer of the 10 Asian cities evaluated, followed by Seoul (11th) and Taipei (15th).
While Asian cities tended to crowd the bottom half of the index, they largely have younger populations than in Europe, so dementia is not yet a policy priority, said the statement.
CHALLENGE
The report, which aims to challenge cities to develop and adopt innovations to improve dementia care, looked at readiness to innovate in five categories - strategy and commitment; early detection and diagnosis; access to care; community support; and business environment.
Publicly available data and on-the-ground insights from nearly 100 experts in the cities were considered.
Singapore came in 9th with regard to strategy and commitment, 10th for community support, and third for business environment, but lagged behind in 21st place for early detection and diagnosis and 18th for access to care.
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