Digital Health Asia 2025 concludes successfully
11 Sep 2025
Attracting over 420 top researchers, innovators and policymakers from around the globe, Digital Health Asia 2025 has successfully concluded. Over 50 speakers shared their insights on biotechnology, longevity medicine, gerontology, public health, and other fields, in three keynote speeches, six presentations and seven panel discussions. They also explored how innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality and body-integrated wireless technology can revolutionise healthcare, introducing a new era for digital healthcare.
The third day of the summit commenced with a keynote speech by Professor Dean Ho, Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the National University of Singapore, titled “Digital longevity medicine: Evolving personalised health optimisation regimens to support healthy ageing”. Professor Ho's Delta study, in which he served as the sole test subject, demonstrated that intentional lifestyle changes can have a significant impact on personal health and help identify potential health risk indicators long before symptoms develop.
During a panel discussion titled “Gerontology: Leveraging digital technology to improve well-being in an ageing population”, Professor Juhee Cho from the Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences and Technology at Sungkyunkwan University, Professor Christine Huang Yi-hui, Head and Chair Professor, and Professor Edmund Lee, Associate Professor, from the Department of Media and Communication of City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK), and Dr Kelvin Tan, Head of Programme, Singapore University of Social Sciences, explored how technology can address the specific health needs of the elderly and support their emotional well-being. All speakers agreed that digital tools must be designed to be user-friendly and affordable to avoid widening social disparities.
The summit also touched on cutting-edge digital health applications, with Professor Yonggang Huang and Professor John Rogers from Northwest University showcasing two body-integrated wireless technologies for health monitoring – epidermal electronics and epidermal microfluidics – which are vital for addressing neonatal care challenges. In addition, Dr Chris Macdonald, Director of the Immersive Technology Lab at the University of Cambridge, presented his multi-award-winning virtual-reality platform designed to treat public-speaking anxiety.
Nine start-ups nurtured by HK Tech 300, CityUHK’s flagship innovation and entrepreneurship programme, showcased their digital healthcare products, technologies and unique advantages in the summit’s exhibition area for three consecutive days. Among them, entrepreneurs of six start-ups joined Professor Johnny Ho Chung-yin, Associate Vice-President (Enterprise) of CityUHK at a panel discussion to explore their challenges and outline how HK Tech 300 supported them to incubate their ideas into start-ups.
In his closing remarks, Professor Michael Yang Mengsu, Senior Vice-President (Innovation and Enterprise) of CityUHK, thanked all the speakers and participants from around the globe from diverse backgrounds. He said the discussions and sharing at the summit had showcased the latest trends in digital health and underlined the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration for the development of global digital health. Through effective data analysis and innovative technologies, the healthcare industry can better predict and respond to diseases, thereby improving overall health, he said. Professor Yang emphasised that future healthcare must be more patient-centric and fully leverage digital technology to facilitate personalised treatment.
Digital Health Asia 2025, organised by Times Higher Education (THE), in partnership with CityUHK and the Institute of Digital Medicine, provides a platform for tackling the urgent challenges facing the healthcare sector. The three-day summit, held at CityUHK starting on 8 September, marks the inaugural event in THE's Digital Health Series held in Asia.
