SMU Visiting Professor of Economics and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Silver Security with SMU’s Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics, Rhema Vaithianathan, studies how the unprecedented ‘silver tsunami’ is changing not only the way we fund care for the elderly, but also how that care is being delivered. A key issue she studies is healthcare financing. Fascinated by the treasure trove of data about citizens collected by government agencies and healthcare providers for administrative purposes, Prof Vaithianathan uses this data to perform predictive risk modelling. The overall aim is to develop automated algorithms to identify high-risk individuals who may require emergency intervention for the benefit of not only themselves, but also the community.