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Smart City Tech for Citizens
Learn how the Government Assisted Living Ecosystem (GALE), a Smart City Tech project by GovTech, is helping vulnerable seniors improve their quality of life.
Last updated 20 May 2025
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Improving vulnerable seniors' quality of life through Smart City Technology
Government Assisted Living Ecosystem (GALE) improves the quality of life for vulnerable seniors through technology.
Hardware: Personal Alert Button (PAB) for emergencies.
Software: Case Management System (CMS) for outreach and care coordination.
Manpower: 24/7 telecare operators and Senior Activity Centre (SAC) staff.
Helped the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and People's Association (PA) reach out to 35,000 rental tenants.
PAB to be deployed in 26,800 more seniors' homes by 2030.
More than 400 medical, social, crime-related, and emergency cases handled successfully.
At GovTech, we envision a Smart Nation where technology acts as an equaliser to give every citizen a chance to improve his or her quality of life. Driven by our mission to build Tech for Public Good, we have undertaken meaningful projects that impact diverse users with varied accessibility needs.
Our Smart City projects require us to experiment with hardware designs and infrastructure developments as well as collaborate with industry partners to pilot new technologies. Our efforts have borne fruit.
Supporting the assisted living infrastructure
One such project is the Government Assisted Living Ecosystem (GALE). We designed, built and rolled out an Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure that enables the provision of caregiving services to vulnerable senior citizens.
This ecosystem is buoyed by three technology and care layers, namely a hardware IoT button called the Personal Alert Button (PAB), a Case Management System (CMS) as well as a team of telecare operators working 24/7 and Senior Activity Centre (SAC) staff.
What are the initiatives piloted under GALE?
PAB: Giving seniors peace of mind as they live independently
The first successful use case under GALE, the PAB is an alert device that can be easily installed in the homes of elderly folks. With it, elderly folks can call for help in the event of an emergency.
The PAB connects them to either a SAC or CareLine, which is a 24-hour personal telecare service manned by Changi General Hospital. The telecare operators will perform triage using the PAB's two-way communicative technology, assess the situation and deploy first aiders.
Case Management Systems (CMS) put to test during COVID-19
At the heart of GALE is the CMS, which facilitates outreach to vulnerable communities. During the Circuit Breaker period, it was enhanced with a sub-system that empowered the Silver Generation Office (SGO) and their volunteers to proactively check on 100,000 elderly folks and offer assistance while concurrently highlighting cases that needed follow-up.
Another sub-system was key in supporting SGO's operations to encourage the elderly to go for their vaccinations through channels such as house visits and video conferences.
A third sub-system was created to help the Ministry of Social and Family Development as well as the People's Association (PA) reach out to rental tenants. Recruited volunteers were able to check on the well-being of some 35,000 rental tenants, offering assistance from food to finance and ensuring that they did not slip through the cracks.
The CMS also further extended support to the Ministry of Finance, PA and its partners to handle lower-income families' appeals or reissue requests for the Grocery Vouchers.
What's the latest on GALE?
The optimistic outcome of the PAB trial has led to a large-scale expansion.
A nationwide rollout
PAB will be deployed in the homes of over 25,000 seniors from 2025 onwards.
Benefitting citizens directly
Over 400 medical, social, crime-related, and emergency cases have been handled successfully.
Exploring new areas for rollout
The GALE team is looking to expand the scope of operations to reach more vulnerable communities.
