SESSION DETAILS
Abstract
In the first talk, an infectious diseases specialist will unpack common misconceptions about flu vaccines, synthesize the latest efficacy and safety data, and discuss real-world barriers across diverse patient groups. The role of the new intranasal influenza vaccine will also be highlighted, and how route of administration, perceived convenience, and patient experience can influence acceptance and adherence.
The second talk, led by a family medicine physician from Hong Kong, will explore how AI‑enabled approaches enhance vaccine delivery across the primary care pathway. The discussion will cover identification of care gaps, targeted outreach, personalised messaging to address hesitancy, scheduling optimisation, and post‑campaign evaluation. Practical takeaways could translate into simple, low‑burden implementations for local GP clinic settings.
Workshop Objectives
Workshop Learning Outcomes
Session Details
Topic
Speaker
Flu Vaccination Reimagined: Myths, Barriers, and the New Intranasal Option
Seasonal influenza imposes a substantial burden on primary care through preventable morbidity, clinic congestion, and downstream complications in high-risk groups. However, flu vaccination rates in Singapore remain suboptimal—particularly among children and working adults—driven by persistent myths, access barriers, and vaccine hesitancy. This symposium will unpack common misconceptions about flu vaccines, synthesize the latest efficacy and safety data, and discuss real-world barriers across diverse patient groups. The role of the new intranasal influenza vaccine will also be highlighted, and how the route of administration, perceived convenience, and patient experience can influence acceptance and adherence. This symposium will bring together clinical and implementation perspectives to equip general practitioners with practical, evidence-based strategies to improve influenza vaccination uptake.
Dr Asok Kurup
Uplifting Vaccine Uptake with AI
Seasonal Influenza vaccination (SIV) has been proven effective to reduce severe morbidity, hospital admission, and mortality related to influenza virus infection. However, vaccination uptake rate has been low across many countries in the world. Whilst the World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution 56.19 recommended that influenza vaccination coverage for older adults and people with chronic conditions should reach 75% or above, only 13 of the member states successfully attained this goal. For instance, the SIV in Hong Kong was 40.7% in the flu season of the year 2020-2021. In order to protect the general population from this virus, novel strategies are needed to boost up vaccination uptake in primary care settings.
In this talk, we will present a new Chatbot device which offers Stage of Change (SOC)-tailored intervention to the general public. We evaluated the relative efficacy of a Chatbot-delivered SOC-tailored online intervention (the intervention group) as compared to a Chatbot-delivered standard, non-SOC-tailored online intervention (the control group) in increasing SIV uptake among Hong Kong residents 65 years or older via a partially-blinded parallel group randomized controlled trial involving 396 subjects. It was found that SIV was significantly improved as compared to the control group.
Prof Martin Wong
Speakers
More information is coming soon.
Dr Asok Kurup
Infectious Disease Physician, Infectious Diseases,
Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre
Prof Martin Wong
Professor, JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Faculty of Medicine,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong