Bill Gates announced recently that he was donating $100 m to ‘find a cure’ for Alzheimer's disease. A good first step would be to immerse himself in the life and work of Professor Kua Heok of Singapore University who has been researching, teaching and writing about dementia for over 30 years. His masterpiece, to which the present volume runs a close second, is his remarkable semi-fictional novel, Listening to Letter from America. There he depicts how a group of elderly Singaporeans, 40 years on from the Japanese occupation, recall the life-saving impact of Alastair Cooke's famous broadcasts. Together with the pianistic skills of one group member, and the self-esteem boost of being interviewed on national radio, reminiscence therapy transformed the mental health of these men and women suffering from depression and memory loss.

The theme of this book, counterpointing its poetic title, is the evidence-base for the qualitative truths of the novelistic form. Professor Heok trail-blazingly combines ‘Western’ scientific methods with ‘Eastern’ values: meticulous randomised controlled trials plus respect for elderly people, mindfulness practice and cultivation of an active and aesthetically pleasing umwelt (I hope this dichotomising does not reveal my covert ‘orientalism’). Heok and his team's epidemiological studies, described here in great detail, which have won four international awards and received over $5 m in research funding, show that staying mentally and physically active, overcoming loneliness, mindfulness practice, being involved in art, singing and horticulture – even eating curry and drinking green tea – significantly reduce rates of cognitive decline, as compared with control groups.

Windows was Gates' passport to untold wealth. Yet, however admirable his philanthropy, the USA is one of the most unequal countries in the developed world, spending more and achieving less than almost all comparable healthcare systems. Mesmerised by Windows-type mystique, Western medicine continues to search for the illusory big-pharma magic bullet. Heok's revolutionary formula is social change: creating a culture that encourages healthy eating, physical and mental activity, fostering the arts, and, via ‘green urbanism’, reconnecting with nature. In contrast to the hard-nosed social psychiatric research that forms its bulk, the final words of this slim, eloquent and indispensable volume are ‘plum blossom in spring’. Make that into your next app, Bill.