SPEECH BY MDM RAHAYU MAHZAM, MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION & MINISTRY OF HEALTH, AT GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR GENOMICS AND HEALTH, 29 SEPTEMBER 2026

Mr Peter Ho, Chairperson of the Precision Health Research, Singapore (PRECISE) Board Oversight Committee,

Professor Patrick Tan, Executive Director of PRECISE,

Members of the PRECISE Board Oversight Committee,

Members of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) Inc Board of Directors and Executive Team,

1.               Good morning. It is a pleasure to join you today as leaders from across the global genomics and healthcare community gather in Singapore to exchange ideas, share experiences, and strengthen collaboration.

2.               Precision medicine is often described as the future of healthcare. In Singapore, this future is progressively being implemented to enhance healthcare, particularly to strengthen preventive health.

3.               Singapore is pursuing a long-term transformation of our healthcare system through Healthier SG. At its core is a simple idea: helping people stay healthy for longer, rather than intervening only after diseases develop. It shifts our focus from treating episodes of illness to supporting better health through proactive preventive care and earlier intervention.

4.               As part of our efforts to enhance preventive health, we need a deeper understanding of why individuals develop certain diseases differently, respond differently to treatment, and experience different health outcomes. Precision medicine helps us better understand this variation by bringing together information such as genomic, clinical and lifestyle data.

5.               By combining genomic, clinical and other health information such as lifestyle and family history, we can better understand disease risks, identify individuals who may benefit from earlier interventions, and support more personalised treatment decisions. Genetic testing can, for example, help identify people with a higher inherited risk of certain diseases, allowing earlier action through targeted screening, lifestyle changes, or preventive treatment.