Head of Data, Innovation & Research · HCA Hospice, Singapore
Ezekiel Yeo
Yeo Zhi Zheng publishes as ZZ Yeo
I turn frontline problems in home hospice care into evidence, data systems and better services.
hello@ezekielyeo.com Research →
- Peer-reviewed papers
- 22
- Years in home hospice research
- 9
- Team I lead
- 5
About
I lead the Data, Innovation & Research department at HCA Hospice, Singapore’s largest home hospice provider. I joined in 2017 to build its research function from the ground up, and today I direct a five-person team that supports research and quality improvement across the organisation’s medical and allied health teams.
My work sits between the ground and the system. A nurse’s hunch about after-hours calls becomes a utilisation study; the study becomes a redesigned workflow; the workflow gets measured again. That work has produced 22 peer-reviewed papers, using methods from group-based trajectory modelling and realist evaluation to time-motion studies, an open-label trial and phenomenological interviews. It informs service design across HCA, and I am a key architect of Singapore’s national framework for compassionate discharge.
I trained in psychology and philosophy at NTU, public health at NUS and health economic evaluation at Duke-NUS. I do my best work where research, operations and building meet, and outside the day job I build local-first apps for iPhone and Mac.
Focus
-
Health services research and evaluation
Realist evaluation, trajectory modelling, cohort studies and qualitative work on how community care is delivered.
-
Health economics and real-world evidence
Utilisation and cost analysis, with formal training in economic modelling and health technology assessment.
-
Data and research leadership
Running a department, its budget and its people, and building research capability in a clinical organisation.
-
Quality improvement
Redesigning workflows on the ground, then measuring whether the change held.
Experience
-
Jun 2023 – Present
Head, Data, Innovation & Research
HCA Hospice
- Direct the department and a five-person team, including manpower and budget planning.
- Oversee research and quality improvement output for HCA's medical and allied health teams.
- Guide clinical staff through organisation-wide quality improvement, such as a call-management redesign to protect home visits for 30 nurses receiving up to 135 calls a day.
- Built longitudinal analyses of healthcare utilisation to inform resource allocation and step-down care.
- A key architect of Singapore's national framework for compassionate discharge.
- Mentor junior researchers and run the journal club, research workshops and education programmes.
-
Jan 2020 – May 2023
Senior Research and Bereavement Executive
HCA Hospice
- Advised clinical teams on study methodology and analysis across HCA's research portfolio.
- Supported more than 15 published projects and more than 15 conference posters and presentations.
- Developed HCA's bereavement risk assessment and ongoing bereavement support programmes.
-
Jan 2017 – Dec 2019
Research and Bereavement Executive
HCA Hospice
- Joined to build HCA's research capability from the ground up (part-time from January 2017, full-time from August 2017).
- Set up the research pipeline, ethics submissions and participant referral processes.
-
Jan 2014 – Dec 2016
Research Assistant
Department of Psychology, Nanyang Technological University
- Data collection, cognitive testing and data management across multiple sites in Singapore.
- URECA President Scholar Researcher; Silver Award, URECA Poster Presentation Competition (2014).
Selected research
-
Terminal discharge of the imminently dying from hospital to home: a realist evaluation
What makes taking a dying patient home from hospital work, for whom, and under what conditions.
-
Work patterns and time allocation in multidisciplinary home hospice: a time-motion study
A measured picture of where a home hospice team's working day actually goes.
-
Protecting 30 frontline nurses' home visits from up to 135 calls a day.
-
Distinct patterns of hospital use among patients on home palliative care, and what predicts them.
-
Evidence that a home-based paediatric programme improved outcomes and reduced costs.
Education
-
2025 · conferred January 2026
Graduate Certificate in Health Economic Evaluation
Duke-NUS Medical School
Distinction (GPA 4.75/5.00). Health economic modelling (A+), advanced health technology assessment methods, health econometrics.
-
Aug 2020 – Aug 2022 · conferred September 2022
Master of Public Health
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore
Highest Distinction (GPA 4.50/5.00). Specialisation in health policy and services. Practicum thesis (A) — a realist evaluation of integrating step-down care into community paediatric palliative care.
-
2013 – 2017
BA (Hons) Psychology, second major in Philosophy
Nanyang Technological University
Second Upper Class Honours. Specialised in research and statistics.
Credentials
Certifications
- CITI Good Clinical Practice
- Responsible Conduct of Research (Basic)
- Beyond D&I — DIELP Certification (Open 2026)
Tools
- Analysis: Stata, SPSS, Quirkos, Excel modelling
- Software: Swift, SwiftUI, SwiftData, AppKit, Git
Languages
- English (full professional)
- Mandarin Chinese (native)
- Malay (limited working)
Writing
-
Guerrilla research in community care: building evidence from everyday work
How Community teams can turn fast, local inquiry into findings taken seriously.
-
Sell shovels in a gold rush
The tools and the process are the prize
-
Collaboration is multilingual
Translation as the atomic work of collaboration
Contact
If you work in community care, health economics, real-world evidence or health technology, I’d welcome a conversation.