GROUP RESEARCH

RENEWAL OF PARTNERSHIPS TO RAISE RESEARCH INTENSITY

To deliver quality care to patients and populations in the Central-North Region, NHG continues to leverage research and innovation, as well as strengthen existing partnerships and build new ones to drive better health outcomes. Between October 2021 and April 2022, NHG renewed its commitment and support towards:

Palliative Care Centre for Excellence in Research and Education (PalC)
Jointly set up by NHG, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore)’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine), and Dover Park Hospice, PalC focuses on two key aspects: providing palliative care education to upskill healthcare professionals in the care of individuals living with life-limiting diseases, and providing support for palliative care research through the annual award of intramural grants. Research at PalC has improved understanding of integrated models of care, management of end-of-life symptoms, non-cancer palliative care, and support for healthcare professionals in palliative care. In October 2021, NHG renewed the partnership for another three years until FY2023.

Rehabilitation Research Institute of Singapore (RRIS)
RRIS is a translational centre for ageing/rehabilitation research and innovation jointly established by NHG, NTU Singapore, and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). It brings together research, engineering, and clinical expertise across the three institutions. Leveraging sensors and robotic technologies, RRIS has developed prototypes to assist rehabilitation therapists’ work and capture falls, such as a balance-assistive robot that has been piloted at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and other day rehabilitation centres. In April 2022, NHG renewed the RRIS partnership for another two years until FY2023.

Brain Bank Singapore (BBS)
The BBS is a national initiative between NTU Singapore’s LKCMedicine, the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI), NHG, and National University of Singapore (NUS)’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. As a brain donation programme and tissue repository, BBS enables future biomedical research to delve into the patho-etiology of neurodegenerative disorders like dementia and neuropsychiatric conditions like schizophrenia. Since its launch, BBS has recruited more than 200 pledged donors and collected four brain and cerebrospinal fluid donations, allowing research in neurological/neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders to be performed using human tissues. In June 2022, NHG renewed the partnership for another three years until FY2024.

ENTERPRISE SINGAPORE PACT FUNDING

In 2021, Enterprise Singapore awarded NHG’s Centre for Medical Technologies and Innovations (CMTi) a new multimillion-dollar funding for five years from CY2021, the third to-date in recognition of the good outcomes achieved by CMTi in CY2020. The renewed funding will strengthen CMTi’s capabilities to support NHG clinicians in the following areas:

• Translating ideas into products
• Grooming and nuturing clinician innovators
• Introducing new technologies

As NHG’s primary engine that drives innovation and translates ideas into implementable products and solutions, CMTi has facilitated more than 300 projects, and engaged close to 300 clinicians to-date. Together with clinicians, CMTi has attracted industry funding worth more than S$39 million, spun off 13 companies, filed over 140 patents, licensed more than 70 intellectual property to partners, and commercialised at least 24 products.

INNOVATIONS IN COVID-19 RESPONSE

To meet the immediate needs of managing COVID-19, NHG CMTi launched a one-off COVID-19 MedTech Innovation Grant Call in April 2020 to support clinicians in their medtech development projects. This timely grant provided the much-needed funding for COVID-19-related projects in the areas of infection prevention and control, telemonitoring and rehabilitation, falls prevention and diagnostics, with close to S$0.5 million in funding awarded.

Since FY2021, the following three projects have been piloted and/or implemented in two NHG Institutions to help create a safe and clean environment for patients and healthcare workers:

Sunburst UV Disinfection Robot
TTSH’s Departments of Environmental Services and Infection Prevention and Control collaborated with PBA Systems Pte Ltd to co-develop and validate an enhanced version of the Sunburst UV Disinfection Robot, an autonomous ultraviolet-C (UVC) disinfection robot that disinfects high-touch surfaces in hospital environments.

COVID-19 Swab Protection Shield
Dr Angeline Seah, Senior Consultant, Geriatric Medicine, KTPH; and Ms Foo Meow Ling, Senior Nurse Clinician, KTPH, partnered Clifford Dispensary and The Biofactory Pte Ltd to co-develop the COVID-19 Swab Protection Shield for patients during aerosol-generating procedures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 droplets/aerosol.

Automated Hospital Cubicle Curtains
Led by Dr Yong Enming, Consultant at TTSH’s Department of General Surgery, a team from TTSH developed and tested an automated curtain device with motorised curtain hooks and sensor control to reduce potential ‘touch-based’ contamination.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also led to collaborative innovation outcomes in the following areas:

Rise of telehealth to enable access to remote assessment, monitoring, and care for our patients

In collaboration with Taggle Pte Ltd, NHG clinicians from multidisciplinary backgrounds have been working to co-develop Digital Health Applications (DHAs) that allow for remote assessment, monitoring, and treatment to help improve and optimise patient and healthcare outcomes:

Heart-track
A full-fledged virtual mobile application-based multidisciplinary programme built for cardiac rehabilitation that allows patients to exercise independently within their targeted heart rate zone with continuous heart rate monitoring, and empowers them to live a heart-healthy lifestyle with modifications based on their individual risk factors.