In exactly five words, how would you describe what you do at Mito Health to someone you’ve met for the first time?
Advanced health analytics, personalised plans.
What do you feel is the biggest problem facing healthcare in Singapore today, and how do you see Mito Health’s role as a way to solve that issue?
Healthcare, not just in Singapore but across the world today, primarily focuses on the treatment and cure, not upstream with preventative health leveraging the latest advancements in diagnostics and longevity research.
At Mito, we plan to be one of the first tech-first companies regionally to leverage all these advancements to deliver the best and most comprehensive preventative health diagnostics with clear, actionable, personalised plans at an accessible price.
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In a country like Singapore, where basic health needs are heavily subsidised and very few would be denied crucial healthcare services, how can a company like Mito Health, which offers services beyond those of basic needs, narrow the socioeconomic divide between what is good to have and what is absolutely necessary?
We believe that for one to achieve good health, it must be all-encompassing in a client’s daily life beyond the doctor’s office and that first consultation.
Using technology and modern-day user experiences, we hope to bring down the cost of quality advanced preventative health tests and analytics to more people at an accessible entry point.
I also see tech as the great leveller in health advances. A very immediate problem I can see being greatly improved with tech is the doctor-to-client ratio, or doctor-to-patient ratio. How do we use technology to really bring down the ratio so that we can start serving more and more clients that are hyper-personalised at scale? And we think that that is not a dream anymore with what we are seeing today.
It’s also about accessibility. For instance, with the latest changes we’ve made to Mito, we’ve brought the price down to a point that we think is the very, very sweet spot for executives who would have otherwise gone to a traditional health screening centre. We want them to try our service and really understand what it’s like to look at the future of healthcare with a tech perspective and a tech lens.
Healthier SG which launched in July, aims to focus on better health and quality of life for all Singaporeans. What does a good quality of life mean for you?
A good quality of life would mean that one is able to enjoy the activities and experiences that one loves around the people that he or she loves and cares about. The recent pandemic has also raised people’s expectations of what a quality life means and looks like.
For me personally, during COVID, I joined a virtual health coaching class that was purely conducted over Zoom for close to three to four months or so over a quarter, and I saw real results — I’ve never even met the coaches in person. So, people are realising that you can start doing things virtually, and you can start exploring their hobbies their ways differently.
Technology has definitely proven that things can be done virtually — so can health-related matters. So, I think preventive health will become a standard, and everyone will look to services to help them maintain their best standard of health for as long as possible.
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What would the perfect intersection of health and technology look like for you?
Today’s 24/7 user experience includes high tech with multiple sensors in one’s pocket, on one’s wrist, and on one’s laptop.
The perfect intersection for me would be answering the question of how we can apply the same learnings around user psychology, digital interactions to create that same delightful, magical experience with a health consultation like Mito and treat this experience as a digital product rather than a traditional service.
When you look at the state of the world today, what is the one thing that gives you hope?
My wife and I were incredibly fortunate to welcome a newborn son in 2023.
If there’s one thing that gives me hope, it is that I finally understood the core belief around the world that one generation would also hope for the next — to be a multitude better when it comes to advancements in all things surrounding better health, a better environment, and everything in between.
