With more than 120 years of innovation experience and deep customer insights, Philips is committed to deliver innovation that matters, by partnering governments and relevant stakeholders to address modern day challenges in Asia Pacific through The ‘+’ Project.
Combining expertise from its business sectors and innovation capabilities, The '+' Project aims to promote healthier living, make healthcare systems more affordable and accessible and improve the livability of cities. To do this, Philips engages with local communities to identify and co-develop meaningful solutions that address local health and well-being challenges.
Philips believes that today’s health and well-being challenges cannot be addressed by any entity in isolation. That’s why we take an approach where we listen intently to what our customers and stakeholders need, then partner where possible to co-create solutions and ultimately deliver real, meaningful innovations that improve the quality of people’s lives.
The ‘+’ Project by Philips in Singapore
Philips launched The ‘+’ Project in Singapore in late 2012. Working with industry partners, the company co-developed and promoted five ideas to address key health and well-being concerns of Singaporeans. Philips pledged US$50,000 to realize the winning idea, and asked the people of Singapore to share their views. Over a ten-week period, Singaporeans voted for their favorite idea in an online survey.
In December 2012, Philips announced that more than 6,800 votes were received and the winning idea was ‘Healthier Schools, Brighter Kids’. Forty-five percent of participants had backed the idea to help make the school environment healthier for children.
Philips also released results from its online survey on the personal health and well-being concerns of the residents of Singapore. The findings showed 78 percent of respondents are satisfied with their quality of life, and that a key determinant of satisfaction is their work-life balance. People who rated their work-life balance positively tend to be more satisfied with their quality of sleep (60 percent) and their current eating habits (73 percent) than those who do not have good work-life balance. People who rated their work-life balance negatively also ranked all other drivers negatively. The survey results were published in a press release.
Realizing the winning idea for Singapore: Healthier Schools, Brighter Kids
After Singapore voted to implement the ‘Healthier Schools, Brighter Kids’ concept, Philips got to work identifying the schools and partners that could make it happen. Eventually, Philips decided to partner three primary schools to implement the program, including Gongshang. Over a few months, Philips worked closely with the schools to define how, based on its expertise and those of its partners, the health and well-being of students can be enhanced.
Ultimately, the collaboration with the schools and partners helped create the various activities and initiatives under the Healthier Schools Brighter Kids program. These focus on three areas – Healthy Eating, Healthy Sleep and Healthy Eyes. In addition, activities were created not only for children, but also reaches out to teachers, parents and canteen vendors as they are key influencers to help enhance children’s health and well-being. Over six-months, some of the key initiatives being rolled out by Philips in the three schools as part of the Healthier School Brighter Kids program are:
Philips also worked with the schools and nutritionists to provide the schools’ canteen vendors with tips and suggestions on enhancing the nutritional value of their food offerings.
Philips expects to reach 300 teachers, 300 parents, 30 canteen vendors and more than 3,600 students across the three primary schools through the Healthier Schools, Brighter Kids program. Through this unique, holistic collaboration with parents, teachers and canteen vendors, Philips hopes to enhance the school environment and inculcate healthier living habits that will help the next generation of Singaporean children grow up healthier.
- Deekshya Panda, 10 years old, Gongshang Primary School
“I hope that students will continue to practise what they’ve learnt in this session in their daily lives – taking care of themselves, leading healthier lifestyles and making wiser food choices.”
- Mrs. How Jia Min, Health Education Coordinator, Gongshang Primary School
“The partnership has helped the school reiterate the importance of maintaining a healthier lifestyle to the children. Students were able to learn many things, such as good eye care habits and how to prepare a healthy sandwich meal. They become more aware that having a healthy meal means being able to concentrate better in class.”
- Mrs. Pearlyn Ang, Teacher, Gongshang Primary School
“This project is very unique because it brings together all the stakeholders. The Philips ‘+’ project involves teachers, parents, kids themselves. A new aspect of their approach is to include canteen vendors and introduce them to healthy cooking methods so that kids can eat healthily not just at home but also in school.”
- Mrs. Kalpana Bhaskaran, Manager of Nutrition Research, Applied Food Science & Nutrition, Temasek Polytechnic
“Healthier Schools, Brighter Kids has provided parents like me with useful information. Sleep problems are an issue in our family, and the talk on sleep have given us a deeper understanding about how to manage sleep patterns for our two boys. The nutrition talk dispelled myths about food, and helped our boys gained greater awareness of the benefits of what they are eating.”
- Mdm. Yvonne Choo, parent of two children from Gongshang Primary School.
“Children in Singapore are sleeping less and spending more time doing homework or interacting on social media till late at night. Even if they are put to bed, when the parents switch off the lights, they still switch on their devices and are on social media again. The light emitted from these devices upsets the circadian rhythm which leads to further sleep problems.”
- Dr. Tripat Deep Singh, Philips Healthcare