SingHealth Community Hospitals (SCH) is the first public healthcare institution in Singapore to integrate a social robot, Dexie, into its inpatient dementia care programme, integrating it in structured rehabilitation therapy during hospital stays. Dexie supports cognitive stimulation and meaningful engagement for patients with dementia.
The initiative, developed in collaboration with Dex-Lab and Goshen Consultancy Services, has shown encouraging outcomes in patient wellbeing and care efficiency. During the pilot phase, 28 patients were evaluated—with 79 per cent having dementia or cognitive impairment. Each completed at least six therapy sessions led by Dexie, which featured tailored exercise routines, interactive activities, and cognitive stimulation games.
Transforming Patient Care Through Technology
Dexie is a humanoid robot that leads upper body exercises, converses with patients, and conducts musical activities. Its multilingual abilities provide accessibility to Singapore’s diverse patient population.
“Dementia is a progressive neurodegenerative condition where neural pathways deteriorate over time,” said Dr Bryan Han, Director, Dementia and Cognitive Care Service, SCH. “Research shows that consistent cognitive stimulation helps maintain neural connections and may slow cognitive decline. The challenge is frequency and consistency, which traditional models cannot always provide due to resource constraints. Dexie fills this gap by delivering evidence-based interventions such as working memory exercises and attention tasks at the intensity patients need. This goes beyond keeping patients occupied; it provides therapeutic interventions that can potentially support quality of life.”
“Patients who were initially resistant to therapy have become more engaged during sessions with Dexie”, shared Ms Lisa Tee, Physiotherapist at SCH, part of the clinical team overseeing the initiative. “One patient who often refused treatment became fully cooperative and even tried movements despite physical limitations. Another, who barely spoke, began encouraging peers during group activities. Dexie complements our work by providing consistent, patient-centred interactions that encourage participation and enhance overall rehabilitation.”
Expanding Reach and Impact
Since the pilot, SCH has extended the use of Dexie to other patient groups beyond dementia care, engaging more than 1,400 patients across SCH. The team is also developing a playbook on humanoid-enabled therapy in community hospitals to guide broader adoption of good practices.
With Singapore’s dementia prevalence projected to almost double from 82,000 in 2020 to 152,000 by 2030, innovative solutions like Dexie offer sustainable ways to deliver consistent therapeutic engagement—allowing healthcare professionals to focus on other complex care needs.
The pilot programme reported positive results across several dimensions:
• 32 per cent increase in positive patient engagement during therapy sessions
• 46 per cent of participants showed cognitive improvements, especially in visual scanning, attention, and working memory
• Operational efficiency gains, with an average of two man-hours reallocated per session to higher-value professional care tasks
• 25 per cent boost in productivity and improved staff-to-patient ratios during group activities (from 1:3 to 1:5-6), enabling more patients to benefit simultaneously
