Media OutReach
HKU Launches First Community Pharmacist-Led Osteoporosis Screening Programme in Hong Kong
COSA Risk Assessment Tool Deployed Across Community Pharmacies to Identify Undiagnosed Patients
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 23 July 2026 – The Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, LKS Faculty of Medicine , the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed) today announced the launch of Hong Kong’s first structured community pharmacist-led osteoporosis screening programme, built upon the validated Chinese Osteoporosis Screening Algorithm (COSA). The initiative enables trained community pharmacists to proactively identify individuals at high risk of osteoporosis — a condition that affects millions yet remains widely undiagnosed — and to facilitate timely referral to family physicians for clinical evaluation, bone mineral density assessment, and diagnosis, thereby helping hidden patients in community to receive appropriate care.
Despite being one of the most prevalent bone diseases in Hong Kong, osteoporosis is estimated to go undiagnosed and untreated in up to 80% of those affected, largely because the disease is asymptomatic until a fracture occurs. By embedding screening within the familiar and accessible setting of community pharmacies, this programme represents a significant step forward in closing the gap between disease burden and clinical intervention.
Osteoporosis Can Lead to Fragility Fractures with Mortality Rates Comparable to Major Cancers
Osteoporosis affects approximately 30% of women and 8% of men aged over 50 or above in Hong Kong, causing progressive deterioration of bone density that leaves patients vulnerable to fragility fractures — fractures that occur from low-impact forces such as a minor fall or even a sudden movement. These fractures carry consequences far beyond physical injury.
Research demonstrates that the one-year mortality rate following a hip fracture can exceed that of certain common cancers, including prostate and breast cancer. Local hospital data further indicate that nearly half of all patients who sustain a fragility hip fracture do not survive beyond five years. Despite these grave outcomes, public awareness remains alarmingly low: international studies suggest that fewer than one in ten at-risk individuals proactively seek a bone mineral density assessment.
Community Pharmacies as an integral part of Primary Healthcare with Pharmacists Playing a Key Role
Recognising the urgent need for a scalable, community-based approach to osteoporosis detection, community pharmacies are increasingly recognised as one of the vital platforms for screening and health education. Community pharmacies play a unique position in the primary healthcare ecosystem — they are among the most frequently visited and trusted healthcare touchpoints in daily life, offering not only medication dispensing but also accessible health consultations, disease prevention education, risk assessments, and referrals, serving as a critical component of the primary healthcare ecosystem.
Standardising the COSA Screening Process to Reach High-Risk Individuals in the Community
Since 2026, the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy at HKUMed has collaborated with multiple community pharmacies to introduce a standardised osteoporosis risk assessment protocol into the community, enabling specially trained community pharmacists to utilise the COSA tool to screen high-risk individuals. The assessment requires only four data points — sex, age, body weight, and prior fracture history — and can be completed within minutes during a routine pharmacy visit.
Pharmacists trained in the protocol explain results to patients immediately upon completion. Individuals identified as high-risk receive a written referral to a family physician or other healthcare professionals for further evaluation, including Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) scanning to confirm diagnosis. All participants, regardless of risk classification, receive bone health education, including guidance on calcium and vitamin D intake, balanced diets, appropriate weight-bearing exercise, fall prevention, and other lifestyle modifications. Studies have demonstrated that these non-pharmacological interventions independently reduce fracture incidence, offering bone protection even in the absence of drug therapy.
Promising Early Results: Approximately 60% of High-Risk Individuals Willing to Undergo Assessment
Since the programme’s launch, community pharmacists have proactively approached over 1,000 high-risk individuals — defined as men aged 70 or above, women aged 65 or above, and adults aged 50 or above with at least one additional osteoporosis risk factor — and invited them to complete the COSA assessment. Notably, approximately 60% of those approached agreed to undergo the assessment, demonstrating that community pharmacy-based osteoporosis screening is an effective means of raising public awareness of the disease and encouraging individuals to take an active role in managing their own health. Of those assessed, more than 100 individuals were identified as being at very high risk for osteoporosis and were referred to family physicians for further diagnostic workup. These findings confirm that this service model can effectively reach and identify undiagnosed high-risk individuals hidden within the community, facilitating early detection and timely intervention.
“Osteoporosis is a disease that is too often discovered only after a fracture has already occurred,” said Professor Cheung Ching-lung, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, HKUMed. “By integrating COSA screening into community pharmacies, we have been able to reach a substantial number of high-risk individuals who had never previously undergone assessment. Establishing routine screening services within community pharmacies not only helps elevate public understanding of bone health but also facilitates the early identification of undiagnoised patients, promoting timely diagnosis and treatment through established referral pathways.”
Proactive Outreach by Community Pharmacies Enhances Screening Accessibility
The Diamond Hill Family Pharmacy, operated by the Christian Family Service Centre (CFSC), is among the participating sites offering osteoporosis screening and health counselling as part of this programme. “Community pharmacies are places people trust and visit regularly. This programme demonstrates precisely how community-based healthcare can extend disease prevention and health education into everyday life. We are delighted to support this clinical model that brings practical osteoporosis screening services into the community so that more high-risk individuals can receive early assessment.” said Mr Gary Kong Ching-yue, Programme Director – Primary Health Care Services, CFSC.
Ms Kuki Ku, a CFSC community pharmacist involved in the programme, highlighted a natural entry point that has proven particularly effective: many older adults visit pharmacies routinely to purchase calcium supplements or vitamin D — products directly associated with bone health. This provides pharmacists with an organic opportunity to initiate a conversation about bone health, introduce the COSA assessment, and deliver personalised guidance on nutrition and exercise to support bone density maintenance. Ms Ku recalled one particularly illustrative case: during a routine COSA screening, she identified an elderly woman as being at high risk for osteoporosis and promptly referred her to a family doctor for further evaluation, including a DXA scan. The scan revealed osteoporosis . She is currently consulting with her doctor on follow-up management to reduce further bone loss.
Ms Shum, a participant of COSA screening service in her eighties living with hypertension, hyperglycaemia, and hypercholesterolaemia, visited the pharmacy to collect a blood glucose meter. At the pharmacist’s invitation, she completed the COSA osteoporosis screening — an encounter she had not anticipated. Her results indicated a high risk for osteoporosis, and she was issued a referral letter alongside personalised advice on fracture-preventive exercise and dietary calcium intake.
Standardised Guidelines and Training Readiness Pave the Way for Expanded Osteoporosis Screening
With Hong Kong’s rapidly ageing population, the number of osteoporosis patients is projected to rise continuously, with hip fracture cases potentially surging several-fold to reach 27,468 cases by 2050. To strengthen community bone health management, the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy at HKUMed has developed a comprehensive practice guideline for community-based osteoporosis screening services. These guidelines encompass the latest disease management information, standardised screening protocols, public education materials, and referral mechanisms, and have been officially reviewed by The Osteoporosis Society of Hong Kong (OSHK).
Additionally, the Department has launched an online Continuing Pharmacy Education (CPE) course to provide training for pharmacists, supporting the standardised development of the service. With guidelines, training courses, and referral pathways now established, the community screening service is fully equipped for expansion. This sets the foundation for more community pharmacies to adopt the service and enables future integration into District Health Centres (DHCs) and other primary healthcare platforms, working collaboratively to build a comprehensive bone health management network rooted in “early identification, timely diagnosis, and prompt treatment.”
Hashtag: #香港大學醫學院 #藥理及藥劑學系 #骨質疏鬆症 #張正龍教授 #COSA #社區藥房 #骨質疏鬆症篩查 #ChineseOsteoporosisScreeningAlgorithm #COSA #HKUMed #Osteoporosis #CommuniyPharmacy #DepartmentofPharmacologyandPharmacy #ProfCheungChingLung
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About the Chinese Osteoporosis Screening Algorithm (COSA)
The Chinese Osteoporosis Screening Algorithm (COSA) is a risk prediction tool developed by The Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong, specifically tailored for the Chinese population. Unlike previous risk prediction tools, such as FRAX and OSTA, which have demonstrated biases due to ethnic differences, COSA offers greater accuracy for Chinese demographics. This algorithm assesses an individual’s risk of developing osteoporosis by posing four straightforward questions related to gender, weight, age, and fracture history, achieving an accuracy rate between 74% and 94%.
Media OutReach
Watsons Unveils “Watsons Evergreen” with Pantone to Celebrate 185 Years of Trusted Care and Everyday Vitality
A Colour That Brings the Brand to Life
Watsons Evergreen is a vibrant blue-green hue that symbolises everyday vitality, care and reassurance, reflecting Watsons’ purpose of helping customers LOOK GOOD, DO GOOD, FEEL GREAT every day. As a distinctive visual identity, it creates a shared language that connects Watsons markets worldwide.
From Watsons’ logo and store design to merchandising displays, digital channels and Own Brand products, Watsons Evergreen has long been a familiar presence across customer touchpoints. The Watsons Evergreen campaign will roll out across 16 markets, including Asia, Europe and the Middle-East, through a series of customer and community activations, as well as a curated range of products, reinforcing the brand’s long-standing connection with customers and communities around the world.
Celebrating a Heritage of Trusted Care
At the heart of the initiative is a simple belief: Watsons has always been there for customers and will continue to be for generations to come.
For 185 years, Watsons has supported customers in their everyday health needs, beauty routines and wellbeing moments, whether in-store or online. Watsons Evergreen reflects this enduring relationship, serving as a symbol of consistency, trust and care in an ever-evolving world.
Jared DeGuzman, Customer Director of Watsons International, said, “For 185 years, Watsons has helped customers feel healthier, happier and more confident in their daily lives. Watsons Evergreen captures that role in a simple yet powerful way. By partnering with Pantone, we’ve transformed our iconic brand colour into a global symbol of vitality, care and wellbeing that will connect customers across every Watsons market.”
Laurie Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute™, added, “Watsons Evergreen captures the essence of a brand that has stood the test of time while continuing to grow and evolve. It is a colour that speaks of vitality and longevity, and of a deep, lasting connection to the customers and communities Watsons has served for generations.”
As Watsons marks this milestone anniversary, Watsons Evergreen stands as both a reflection of its rich heritage and a symbol of its forward-looking vision – uniting past and future in one distinctive expression of the brand.
Hashtag: #ASWatson
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About Watsons
Watsons is the leading O+O (Offline plus Online) health and beauty retailer in Asia, currently operating 8,000 stores and more than 1,500 pharmacies in 16 Asian, European and Middle-East markets.
Watsons is named as the No.1 Personal Care and Beauty retailer in Asia*, providing personalised advice and counselling in health, beauty and personal care on top of its market-leading product range, making customers LOOK GOOD, DO GOOD, FEEL GREAT every day. Watsons is the flagship health and beauty brand of AS Watson Group.
Launched in 2019, Watsons’ Asia One Pass rewards our customers with local-member privileges and enables them earn points when they shop with Watsons in ten markets in Asia including Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Türkiye and the Philippines.
*Campaign Asia-Pacific’s Top 50 Brands survey with 10,000 respondents across 6 Asian countries
About AS Watson Group
Established in 1841, AS Watson Group is one of the world’s longest-standing and most recognised retail companies with roots in Asia. Today, the company operates over 17,000 stores across 12 retail brands in 31 markets, employing 130,000 people globally. This makes AS Watson Group the largest international health and beauty retailer in the world.
In the fiscal year 2025, AS Watson Group reported revenue of over US$26 billion. The company’s technology-enabled O+O (Offline plus Online) platforms serve over 6 billion shoppers annually, seamlessly integrating physical and digital retail experiences.
AS Watson Group supported over 180 charitable and non-profit organisations every year, dedicating over 40,000 hours of volunteer work to serve over 370,000 people in need in our operating markets.
AS Watson Group is also a member of the world-renowned multinational conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings Limited, which has four core businesses – ports and related services, retail, infrastructure and telecommunications in over 50 countries.
Please visit 
www.aswatson.com/our-company/o-and-o-strategy/ for more information.
Media OutReach
STAMPEDE creates 11,000 free business pages to bring Singapore’s AI push to local F&B operators
Hawkers, cafés and restaurants can claim their pages and set up no-app loyalty and referral programmes at no upfront cost
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 23 July 2026 – As Singapore commits more than S$1 billion to artificial intelligence research and talent development from 2025 to 2030, homegrown loyalty platform STAMPEDE is helping smaller F&B businesses to benefit from AI without requiring owners to learn complex tools or hire dedicated marketing teams.
STAMPEDE has created more than 11,000 free, claimable business pages for F&B establishments across Singapore. The pages give hawkers, cafés, restaurants and small chains a digital starting point where customers can find key business information, including location, ratings and outlet details.
Owners can claim or create their page for free, set up a digital loyalty programme and review the system before deciding whether to activate a paid plan.
The initiative comes as Singapore’s F&B sector faces continued pressure. Between 1 January and 23 October 2025, 2,431 retail food establishments closed. Of these, 63% had been registered for five years or less, while 82% of that group had never recorded a profit in their annual tax declarations.
Against this backdrop, STAMPEDE is focusing on an area that operators can influence directly: whether customers return, redeem rewards and recommend the business to others.
“Singapore is investing heavily in AI, and that’s a real opportunity, but a hawker or café owner shouldn’t need to become an AI expert to benefit from it,” said Wilson Komala, Founder of STAMPEDE.
“At the end of the day, F&B owners just want customers coming back and bringing their friends. The technology should work quietly in the background, turning everyday customer activity into simple actions and not another dashboard to check or skill for the owners to learn,” Wilson added.
Customers join a participating outlet’s loyalty programme by scanning a QR code through their phone browser, without downloading an application. Staff can issue stamps using an ordinary phone camera, with no additional hardware required.
The platform combines digital stamp cards, referral rewards, coupons, customer data, automated communications and weekly AI reports that explain customer activity in plain language.
Early results from three Singapore F&B brands show how this can translate into measurable customer activity. In under four months, OMMA Chicken Soup, CHA MULAN and LICKERS collectively gained more than 14,000 loyalty members, generated over 1,300 completed referrals and recorded more than 10,700 coupon redemptions across 19 outlets.
OMMA Chicken Soup recorded more than 5,500 loyalty members and over 300 completed referrals across five outlets, while CHA MULAN gained more than 7,000 members and generated over 800 referrals across nine outlets. Their coupon redemption rates reached approximately 50% and 55% respectively.
“The strongest sign for us is that customers are not only joining the programmes, but they are now returning, redeeming rewards and recommending the brands to others,” said Josiah Tan, Founder of OMMA Chicken Soup and Co-founder of CHA MULAN.
Neighbourhood ice cream brand LICKERS gained more than 1,600 loyalty members and over 200 completed referrals across five outlets. It also recorded a 33% returning-customer rate, the highest among STAMPEDE’s clients.
“LICKERS has always grown through its regulars, so the returning-customer rate is particularly meaningful,” said Felix Tan, Founder of LICKERS. “It gives us clearer proof that customers are coming back and introducing the brand to others.”
Businesses can claim or create their STAMPEDE page and complete the initial setup for free. Payment begins only when the programme is activated, with its Growth plan priced at S$50 per outlet per month.
Hashtag: #singapore #f&b #food #customerloyalty #loyalty
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About STAMPEDE
Stampede is a Singapore-built loyalty and marketing platform for local businesses, with a focus on helping F&B operators bring customers back through digital stamp cards, referrals, coupons, automated campaigns and weekly AI reports. Built for busy owners and frontline staff, the platform works through a browser with no customer app download or special cashier hardware required. Businesses can set up for free and pay only when they go live. Learn more at https://stampede.sg/
Media OutReach
Alylytiq launches AI-powered research solutions to make big-brand insights affordable for Singapore SMEs
For decades, professional market research has been the preserve of large corporates — the only players who could justify studies routinely costing tens of thousands of dollars. SMEs, who arguably have the least room for error, have been left to make market decisions on instinct. AI has now broken that equation. A commissioned study that would typically cost SGD 30,000 can be delivered through Automytiq for around SGD 6,000 — an 80 per cent reduction. The savings come from using AI to automate the most labour-intensive stages of the research process, while Alylytiq’s senior researchers remain in the loop at every stage for interpretation and quality control.
Automytiq is a distinct, productised offering, separate from Alylytiq’s core consulting practice. An Automytiq engagement runs to a standardised scope — sharply defined questions, streamlined fieldwork, and a focused report — which is what makes the lower price point possible. Alylytiq’s bespoke engagements for corporate clients are a different service: fully custom-designed, senior-led from research design through to analysis and strategic recommendation, often spanning multiple markets and methodologies, and priced to reflect that depth. The firm positions Automytiq as extending professional research to businesses that could never access it, not as a repricing of its consulting work.
Automytiq covers the full research cycle through four connected solutions:
Market Intelligence. AI-assisted secondary research that maps an SME’s target market — market size, competitor landscape, and customer trends — drawing on licensed and publicly available data sources.
Guided Brief-to-Proposal. A simple structured questionnaire captures what the business owner wants to learn. Automytiq transforms those answers into a full research proposal, giving SMEs a professionally scoped study without needing in-house research expertise.
Automated Research Design. Approved proposals are converted directly into fieldwork-ready research instruments — discussion guides, screeners, and questionnaires — cutting design time from weeks to days.
Bespoke Story Reporting. Once data is collected, Automytiq translates the raw results into fully customised reports built around a narrative that tells the business what the numbers mean and what to do next — not a template dashboard.
Automytiq has already been deployed in live client work. For SME payments fintech Handshake Finance, Alylytiq used Automytiq to map the company’s target market and competitive landscape, sharpening the focus of its go-to-market efforts. For business consultancy Anton Solutions Group, the platform supported a larger client engagement by delivering insights into financial risk management opportunities across new markets.
Anton Solutions Group, which engaged Alylytiq on a client project, said it was “genuinely impressed” by the firm’s approach. Using AI, a short discovery call, and a focused questionnaire, Alylytiq delivered a comprehensive primary research report within a day, enabling a faster transition into in-depth market analysis. The consultancy added that it looks forward to referring suitable projects to Alylytiq.
“As an early-stage company, every dollar and every week counts. Alylytiq gave us a clear, evidence-based picture of our market, our competition, and the customers we should lead with — and just as importantly, told us which questions still needed real fieldwork to answer. It sharpened decisions we would otherwise have made on instinct, at a price a company our size could actually justify,” said Christopher Chan, Co-Founder of Handshake Finance.
“SMEs make the same high-stakes decisions large corporates do — which market to enter, which customers to serve, where to spend a limited marketing dollar — but they’ve been asked to make them on gut feel because proper research was priced for someone else,” said Wei Shen, Founder and Principal Strategist of Alylytiq.
The launch lands in the middle of a wider debate about whether AI is making professional research obsolete. Alylytiq’s position is that the barrier for SMEs was never just cost — it was expertise: knowing what to ask, how to structure a research question, and how to tell when an answer is wrong.
“Any business owner can ask a chatbot for a market estimate today. The problem is they have no way of telling whether that answer is grounded in real data or invented — and acting on a confident wrong answer costs far more than a study ever would,” said Wei Shen. “That’s why Automytiq isn’t a tool we hand over. Our senior researchers design the questions and validate every output before it reaches the client. The AI changes the economics; the humans protect the answer.”
Automytiq is available to Singapore SMEs now. Businesses can learn more at www.alylytiq.com.Hashtag: #Alylytiq
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Alylytiq
Alylytiq LLP is a Singapore-based market research and insights consultancy founded on the principle that every number tells a story. Led by senior researchers with two decades of experience across global agencies and financial services, Alylytiq works across brand equity, product innovation, competitor benchmarking, customer experience, and market understanding for clients ranging from multinational corporates to growing regional businesses. www.alylytiq.com
