BookDoc partners special Olympics Asia-Pacific to improve athletes' health

SINGAPORE, Jan 18 (Bernama) -- Malaysia-based BookDoc aims to improve the health and fitness of athletes with intellectual disabilities across the Asia-Pacific region through the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Special Olympics Asia Pacific today.

The progress of 750 athletes with intellectual disabilities across Southeast Asia will be monitored during the pilot phase of the project through BookDoc’s wellness reward application, BookDoc Activ.

The health data collected would be analysed and used to further engage and improve their health and sports performance, the two signatories said in a joint statement.

“This partnership aims to use technology to harness valuable health and fitness data which we can use to address certain gaps, whether in training or nutrition, and help athletes with intellectual disabilities perform at their most optimal,” said Special Olympics Asia Pacific president and managing director Simon Koh.

BookDoc Activ rewards users according to their average daily steps, which are tiered at bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

It is able to sync with other health applications such as Apple Health, Samsung Health, Google Fit, Fitbit and Garmin, which enables users to efficiently keep track of their daily exercise and get rewarded for it.

By maintaining a high level of activity, users will be able to redeem monthly discounts or freebies from major retailers and service providers across 12 countries.

“We hope that through this partnership, athletes with intellectual disabilities will be able to perform at their best with more advanced monitoring and intervention programs,” said BookDoc founder and chief executive officer Datuk Chevy Beh.

BookDoc was first started to help users locate and arrange their medical appointments.

“But I believe prevention is better than cure. BookDoc Activ was launched with the aim of starting a social fitness movement to motivate users to start living healthier lifestyles at no cost,” he said.

The BookDoc app may be downloaded for free from the App Store or Google Play Store.

BookDoc, which has presence in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia, is an online platform that operates across the healthcare continuum, connecting patients to healthcare professionals anytime and anywhere while incentivising all to stay active.

The company is backed by a diverse group of investors from entrepreneurs to seasoned healthcare and insurance professionals, banker, regulators as well as information and communication technology professionals.

Meanwhile, Special Olympics is a global inclusion movement using sport, health, education and leadership programmes every day around the world to end discrimination against and empower people with intellectual disabilities.

Founded in 1968, the Special Olympics movement has grown to more than six million athletes and Unified Sports partners in more than 170 countries.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Special Olympics has touched the lives of more than 1.7 million athletes across 33 countries.

-- BERNAMA