Developing personalised health strategies using real-time data

Digital health technologies need to be forward-looking to prevent health conditions, according to Dean Ho, head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the National University of Singapore.

“The vast majority of papers that are published in the digital medicine space are retrospective,” he said in an interview held in the run-up to the 2025 THE Digital Health Asia event. Organised by Times Higher Education in partnership with City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) and the Institute of Digital Medicine at CityUHK, the summit brought together more than 400 delegates from around the world. 

Ho was one of the expert speakers to participate in the event. The event offered a platform to exchange knowledge, promote global collaboration and drive progress in the field of digital health.

“You need retrospective studies for the early development of models, but we never really look at how people evolve and change over time,” said Ho. “‘Prospective’ means moving forward – it means using technology and helping somebody tomorrow. There needs to be a bigger push to make digital technologies and AI much more prospective.”

He said that digital technologies such as AI should use real-time data to identify current health concerns and help patients. Recognising this need, Ho and his colleagues launched DELTA, a first-of-its-kind human trial with Ho as the only participant. 

“DELTA is a trial where I am the only test subject. I’m collecting really detailed information about how I evolve over time,” Ho said. The trial was designed to determine how deliberate changes in his lifestyle can have a measurable impact on his health. 

 

The team collected data on Ho’s metabolism, sleep and heart and gut health as he intentionally made significant changes to his lifestyle. Over the course of the trial, Ho significantly improved his health and achieved a metabolic age that was more than a decade younger than his chronological age. He said that by tracking the change in people’s biomarkers over time, health professionals and researchers can discover insights that well-being snapshots would miss.

The aim of the study was to design data collection frameworks that would empower population-scale interventions. In this participatory model, people will be able to access their own data, enabling them to make better health choices, encouraging a digital-health future where people are active participants and take control of their health. The goal of this approach is not just to treat people with health concerns, but to focus proactively on keeping people healthy.

At the Digital Health Asia event, held in September 2025, Ho delivered a keynote on evolving personalised health optimisation regimens to support healthy ageing, highlighting how the emergence of digital health is paving the way towards digital longevity medicine.

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