Singapore - Singapore healthcare industry

1. Industry Background

World-Class Healthcare Hub

Singapore offers Asia’s best healthcare system, and its standard of medical practice ranks among the best in the world. The Joint Commission International (JCI) has accredited ten hospitals and three medical centres in Singapore.

Singapore’s world-class healthcare facilities drew more than 400,000 foreign patients in 2006. This demand is likely to grow, given better health awareness, longer lifespans and improving economic circumstances across the region. Singapore’s target is to grow the number of foreign patients to 1 million by the year 2012.

The close partnership between Singapore’s healthcare providers and the numerous medical technology and pharmaceutical companies based here offers an optimal platform for companies who seek to make inroads into the growing healthcare and wellness markets in Asia Pacific.

Delivering Innovative Healthcare Solutions

Singapore has an established strong track record in scientific and clinical excellence. Leveraging on its base of public-sector research institutes and global industry partners, Singapore offers strategic partnership opportunities for healthcare service providers to test-bed and develop innovative healthcare solutions and systems.

Complete Spectrum of Services

Singapore’s healthcare institutions – comprising public hospitals, private hospitals and specialty centres – provide a complete spectrum of clinical services from basic health screening to dental surgery and quaternary care.

Quality Healthcare Service Providers

Major healthcare providers in the public sector include Singapore Health Services Pte Ltd and National Healthcare Group. In the private sector, healthcare groups include the Parkway Group, Raffles Medical Groupand Pacific Healthcare. Healthcare institutions that have Regional Headquarters here include Johns Hopkins, Joint Commission International, IMS Health Asia and International SOS. Singapore also hosts the regional secretariats and offices for the World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA), the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

Driving Healthcare Innovation

Singapore is committed to driving innovation that addresses the rising costs and inefficiencies in healthcare systems worldwide. Indeed, as the city-state adopts an integrated-care approach to sustain its objective of providing good and affordable healthcare and to find ways to tackle the challenges of an ageing population, Singapore seeks to promote innovation that can achieve improved clinical outcomes and enable greater cost and operational efficiencies in the healthcare system.

Significantly, Singapore is developing platforms such as ‘Hospital-of-the-Future’ and ‘Homecare-of-the-Future’ for healthcare service providers. These platforms allow healthcare players to develop and test new products and business models with companies from other industries such as IT systems, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, nutrition and consumer lifestyle. Furthermore, Singapore has also established a strong foundation in basic biomedical sciences research and translational clinical research. This, plus the fact that the city-state is a microcosm of Asia, makes it an ideal base to design, develop, test-bed, and launch new healthcare solutions and systems for the regional and global markets.

2. Facts and Figures

• Singapore has acheived world-class standards in healthcare – Singapore offers the world’s 4th best healthcare infrastructure (IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2009) and is the world’s 3rd lowest in infant mortality and 7th highest in life expectancy (WEF Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010).

• Singapore was conferred “Best Medical/Wellness Tourism Destination” at the TravelWeekly (Asia) Industry Awards for two consecutive years (2007, 2008).

• Joint Commission International (JCI) has set up its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. JCI has accredited ten hospitals and three medical centres in Singapore.

• Singapore hosts the regional secretariats of prominent international healthcare organisations such as the World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA) and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). The Asia-Pacific office of theHealthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is also based in Singapore.

• International research organisations that have established their presence here include the American Association for Cancer Research, Duke University andLiggins Institute for Epigenetics. Companies and scientists are working with these research institutes to accelerate drug discovery and develop novel therapies for unmet healthcare needs.

3. Health & Wellness Programme Office (HWPO)

The EDB-MOH Health and Wellness Programme Office (HWPO) is a joint initiative between Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and Ministry of Health, Singapore (MOH). HWPO seeks to further enhance Singapore’s healthcare system while driving innovation through key platforms that promote public-private partnerships to accelerate companies’ development of future solutions today.  Through these innovation partnerships, HWPO seeks to entrench Singapore as a sophisticated lead market to develop more effective systems and solutions that can address unmet healthcare needs in Asia and global markets.

3.1 Key Partnership Platforms

Public Private Co-Innovation PartnershipIn November 2010, Singapore Government has launched the Public Private Co-Innovation Partnership to develop solutions for the government’s longer-term needs. The Government will commit S$450 million over the next five years to fund such collaborations. Each company can receive more than S$1.75 million in funding for three key stages - proof of concept, proof of value and test-bedding of prototypes.
Under this initiative, Singapore’s Ministry of Health is calling for proposals for a remote monitoring solution for chronic disease patients, initially targeted for diabetic population. Advances in tele-health technologies can ease the burden of chronic disease management by allowing caregivers and physicians to monitor and administer care remotely. By reducing noncompliance and enabling painless testing, the new technologies can improve the level of care and quality of life for patients. Companies that are developing these solutions can further leverage Singapore as a reference site when commercialising and exporting the solution globally.
For more info, please visithttp://www.coinnovation.gov.sg/moh_remotemonitoring.html

Silver Community Test-Bed Programme

Launched by the Ministry of Community, Youth & Sports (MCYS), the Silver Community Test Bed Programme offers a platform for companies, public agencies and educational institutions to test-bed age-friendly assistive devices and products in a real-life home setting. MCYS had provided up to S$3 million as seed funding to facilitate the test-bed process for the 1st and 2nd grant calls. The first two calls provided a chance for participating seniors to experience state-of-the-art technology. These range from a personal care robot to a touch-screen communication device and a wireless health monitoring system.
In July 2010, MCYS launched the third grant call for proposals and will provide funding support for innovative and affordable solutions that enable seniors to live and remain in the community, across the health and social care continuum.  The Singapore Government is setting aside $10 million to support the programme over the next two years.

National Grand ChallengeSingapore’s Health Promotion Board (HPB) has launched the inaugural National Grand Challenge in 2010. Supported by HWPO, this programme seeks proposals from companies to develop new solutions to prevent and control obesity and pre-diabetes. When selected in end 2010, companies can work with partners in Singapore’s public-sector healthcare system to develop innovative technologies and business models.

3.2 Partnering Singapore in Healthcare Innovation

Hill-Rom: Driving Innovation for Asia Pacific in SingaporeHill-Rom has established its Asia-Pacific Innovation Centre in Singapore to focus on applied development in micro-electronics, embedded software and electro-mechanical systems, all of which are integral to the development of new Hill-Rom beds and therapy surfaces. The centre will also be the home-base for new teams looking at R&D projects for global applications of Hill-Rom products.
In 2010, Hill-Rom launched the Patient Support Development Center in Singapore. This centre will collaborate with hospitals in Asia to develop new products for the region. Hill-Rom also launched a Respiratory Care Development Center that will identify and develop innovative global respiratory care products in Singapore.

Hocoma AG: Developing Applications for Medical RoboticsHocoma AG – a Swiss medical technology company that is a leader in robotic rehabilitation therapy for neurological movement disorders – announced its partnership with Singapore’s Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) Rehabilitation Centre to develop and optimise clinical and equipment applications. TTSH Rehabilitation Centre will also be the Training Centre for Hocoma in Asia Pacific.

A*STAR-Tekes: Developing Online Health Monitoring PlatformIn January 2010, Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, announced the first bilateral Joint Call for Proposals (JCP) in areas including healthcare, wellness and ageing. The JCP is part of the 2nd Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by both parties to promote R&D and scientific collaboration.
This follows the success of projects under the first MOU, which included the development of an online health monitoring platform that can remotely track the sleep activity of elderly patients. This platform has been successfully tested at a Singapore nursing home, allowing caregivers to monitor and advise their patients from anywhere in the world as long as they have an internet connection.

World-Class HealthcareSingapore has established strong fundamentals in healthcare excellence, having established the world’s 4th best healthcare infrastructure (World Competitiveness Yearbook 2010, IMD) while spending less than 4% of GDP on healthcare and providing universal coverage for Singaporeans with multiple layers of care. Singapore has also established an integrated system that addresses the full continuum of care, which is underpinned by an electronic medical records exchange system as well as a growing base of pharmaceutical and medical technology R&D activities.
As an advanced urbanised, ageing nation in Asia that has achieved healthcare excellence, Singapore presents a sophisticated lead market that enables companies to fast-track their innovation process to develop future solutions that can address Asia’s fast-growing healthcare needs.

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