IHH Healthcare unveils S$5 million programme to fund healthcare research and pilot projects
Funds under the Research Grant & Innovation Sandbox programme will be disbursed over five years, empowering IHH clinicians and employees to pursue clinical research and to pilot ground-up initiatives addressing critical health issues.
The group said that the fund has 'potential to grow further', depending on the strength of proposals and interest level.
The programme's first grant call was held in March and focused on oncology and chronic diseases, which Dr Prem Kumar Nair, group chief executive officer of IHH Healthcare, described as 'two of the most urgent and complex challenges facing healthcare today'.
Out of 55 submissions received, a grant governance committee comprising senior management and domain experts from IHH shortlisted seven research grant projects and eight innovation sandbox applications.
The shortlisted submissions include one project from IHH's Singapore market, four from its Malaysia market, nine from its India market and one from its Hong Kong market.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
Sign Up
Sign Up
Among these are a study that aims to enhance healthcare delivery for Type 2 diabetes patients at Gleneagles Hospital in Penang, a project related to kidney failure at Pantai Hospital in Kuala Lumpur and a project focusing on an artificial intelligence-powered health application for continuous chronic disease monitoring in Singapore.
Projects under the programme's clinical research track are expected to be completed within one year or up to a maximum of two years for 'complex cases', IHH said. Their findings and outcomes are to be published to contribute to wider healthcare literature on oncology and chronic diseases.
Meanwhile, projects under the innovation sandbox track will prioritise ideas that demonstrate 'clear impact', such as scalability across IHH's markets, cost savings, improved patient outcomes and better patient experiences, the group said.
IHH will open its next call for submissions in September.
Shares of IHH closed on Thursday 2 per cent or S$0.04 higher at S$2.03.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
20 hours ago
- Business Times
Neuralink sees US$1 billion of revenue by 2031 in vast expansion
[BOSTON] Elon Musk's brain implant company Neuralink expects to put its chips in 20,000 people a year by 2031, generating at least US$1 billion in annual revenue, in a major ramp-up of its work to treat disease and gain unprecedented access to the human mind, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg. Within six years, the company also plans to have about five large clinics in operation, with at least three versions of its device available, according to a recent presentation shown to investors. One version, Telepathy, is for enabling communication between the brain and machines; another, Blindsight, is aimed at giving vision to blind people; and a third, Deep, would treat tremors and Parkinson's disease. The financial projections, as well as the company's work in patients with tremors and Parkinson's, have not been previously publicly reported. Representatives for Musk and Neuralink did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company's stated goals show the enormous scale of Musk's vision for Neuralink and the ambitious timeline on which he seeks to operate. Fewer than 10 people are publicly known to have Neuralink brain devices so far as part of clinical trials, and no patients have them to restore vision or treat Parkinson's. By 2029, the company expects to gain regulatory approval in the US for its Telepathy device, and it hopes to perform 2,000 surgeries a year and generate at least US$100 million in annual revenue, according to the documents. Then by 2030, Neuralink sees the launch of its sight-restoring chip Blindsight, expanding to 10,000 surgeries a year and bringing in over US$500 million. The figures assume 'a conservative reimbursement of US$50k per surgery', the documents show. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Neuralink has raised US$1.3 billion from investors and is now valued at US$9 billion, according to PitchBook. Brain-computer interface companies such as Neuralink have attracted significant attention and investment in recent years for potential medical applications. No devices are approved by US regulators for permanent use in humans, as companies are still working on gathering data on safety and effectiveness. Musk has hit a number of milestones with Neuralink, though he is also known for overstating how quickly he will be able to reach technological achievements. For example, in 2015, Musk said that Tesla cars would be able to drive themselves within three years. He moved the timeline back several times and finally launched Robotaxis for testing last month. As part of clinical trials, paralysed patients have used Neuralink devices to control computers, allowing them to browse the internet, play games, and edit videos. The company has also been testing its vision implant in monkeys. Several other brain implant companies are building and testing devices to stimulate or read data from the brain. No brain-computer interfaces are approved commercially for permanent implantation by the US Food and Drug Administration. BLOOMBERG
Business Times
3 days ago
- Business Times
A looming dairy drought will stunt the world's growth
IT IS every baby's first food, and we cannot get enough of it. The world produces close to a billion tonnes of milk each year – more than all the wheat or rice we grow. That lead is set to widen over the coming decade, with dairy consumption expected to grow faster than any other agricultural commodity. On a rapidly warming planet, this poses a host of problems. Consider demand. There are more than half a billion people under the age of four in developing countries, and about a third of them suffer from stunting – short stature that is associated with health, educational and economic problems in later life. Most could benefit from the policy first proposed by Scottish nutritionist John Boyd Orr in the 1920s: provision of dairy products to give them a more nutritionally rich diet. That is one of the main pillars of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's newly introduced free school meals programme, as my colleague Daniel Moss has written. Similar programmes have been set up in many states in India, as well as South Africa and Kenya. In terms of human welfare, we should be welcoming this trend. Dairy products are relatively expensive, and we consume more of them as we rise above the most basic subsistence levels. If South Asia, South-east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are likely to see booming consumption over the coming decade, as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development forecast last week, it is largely a positive symptom of their long-awaited economic development. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up The problem comes when you start looking at supply. Milk is mostly being produced in the wrong places for the young stomachs that need it. More than 90 per cent of children under four are in developing countries – but the same nations produce barely half of the world's milk. Europe alone represents a quarter of global output, and highly perishable dairy products are not much sold across borders. The total worldwide trade in whole milk powder, for instance – after a decade when China's hunger for baby formula upended the global dairy industry – accounts for about 2 per cent of raw milk. Even that limited commerce has been sufficient to upset local supply chains. In New Zealand, often likened to the Saudi Arabia of dairy thanks to its dominance in exports, demand from South-east Asian importers drove whole milk powder prices to a three-year high in May, while butter inflation is running above 50 per cent. With trade providing only limited relief, we are most likely to see shortages, as rising demand from developing countries is met with limited increases in supply. The world's milk deficit will hit 30 million tonnes by 2030, the International Dairy Federation warned in April. The IFCN Dairy Research Network, a separate group, still sees a 10.5 million tonne shortfall by the same date. That dairy drought will push prices beyond the reach of those who most need it. Climate change makes all of this worse. Rising temperatures will mean it is even harder for tropical and subtropical countries to be self-sufficient: Extreme heat can cut milk production by as much as 10 per cent, according to a study in the journal Science Advances earlier this month. Milk is also a major culprit in global warming, as well as a victim of it. Dairy cattle emissions, mostly from methane-dense burps as cows digest grass, amount to 2.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to what is caused by two-thirds of all cars. The shift to more production in developing nations will make this even worse. Pollution for each kilogram of raw milk in Africa and South Asia is three to four times higher than in developed countries, because the mechanised, intensive dairy farming practised in the rich world has a far lower carbon footprint. What can be done to fix this? Wealthy nations whose appetite for plant-based alternatives appears to be wavering should recommit to their shift away from livestock-based food. Far too much of our limited capacity to sustain dairy production is still being hogged by affluent populations, who have grown so jaded that we now use milk for luxuries like bodybuilding supplements as much as for basic nutrition. Relatively prosperous developing countries like China and Brazil can also up their game by moving to more intensive farming. They could get by with a third of their current dairy herd if they raised yields to developed-world levels. In India, the biggest dairy producer, the benefits could be even greater. Thanks to religious objections to the slaughter of cows after they stop producing, there are more than five million stray cattle roaming the streets, spreading disease, attacking people, getting hit by traffic and fuelling organised crime. A smaller, more intensively raised herd would shrink this bovine epidemic. Greater dairying of buffalo, which already produce about half of India's milk and are not considered sacred, would also help. One thing is certain, though: Exhorting poor countries to give up the nutritional benefits of dairy that their richer peers have enjoyed is repugnant, and bound to fail. If we want to reduce milk's carbon footprint, we are going to need to produce it more efficiently, rather than hoping the problem will just go away. BLOOMBERG
Business Times
6 days ago
- Business Times
How tech can close the care gap for an ageing nation with dignity
SINGAPORE is facing a stark demographic reality. By 2030, one in 25 Singaporeans will be aged 80 and above, while the number of people available to care for them is shrinking fast. This is not about longer wait times at the nearby clinic or the higher cost of healthcare. We are, in fact, heading towards a point where there simply are not enough hands for basic human needs: getting dressed, taking medication or having someone help you up after a fall. The uncomfortable question becomes: When traditional care is no longer feasible, what happens to dignity? What happens to the quality of care we want for our own parents? We must rethink how care is delivered, and technology is an ideal way to bridge the gap between our ageing population's needs and our shrinking workforce's capacity. Freeing caregivers to care On the ground, caregivers are burning out fast. They spend precious time on administrative tasks, wheeling meal trays, hunting for clean linen and tracking medication. These tasks eat into hours they could spend providing quality care. Meanwhile, most aged care facilities disallow smartphones, leading caregivers to secretly use WhatsApp and Telegram to coordinate and communicate with colleagues. What if we used technology to return that time to them? Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are already doing the heavy lifting in 16 Singapore nursing homes, managing routine transport tasks and freeing up at least 10 per cent more staff time for direct patient care. This is not about replacing caregivers, but about letting them focus on what they do best – providing the human connection that no robot can replicate. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Instead of disallowing smartphones, aged care facilities should embrace them. With the right tools, a smartphone can become the central hub for everything from instant communication with colleagues to real-time care plan updates and emergency alerts. Sensor networks for emergency alert systems let caregivers instantly call for help during medical emergencies. Add artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cameras that spot falls or wandering incidents, and you have caregivers who can respond to real emergencies instead of constantly checking 'just in case'. This digital-first approach also appeals to incoming Gen Z caregivers who expect modern, tech-enabled work environments. Preserving dignity through patient-centric technology But technology for caregivers is only half the equation. The real test of technology in aged care is whether it serves the people receiving care – and their expectations are changing, too. Tomorrow's seniors are already familiar with technology, and have no intention of handing over control of their lives just because they need some extra support. They want to stay in charge, not be managed. This insight changes our approach to technology in aged care. Instead of being nagged to take medication, a gentle robot can offer a reminder. The difference is between being watched and being supported. This is where it gets a little tricky – AI-powered monitoring should preserve dignity, not compromise it. Nobody wants to feel they are living under surveillance, even if it is 'for their own good'. The systems we build must have ethics and transparency at their core. Seniors should know exactly what is being monitored, and who can see the data. The goal is not a fully automated aged care facility, but giving our seniors the tools to stay independent for as long as possible. That includes everything from smart sensors that prevent falls to user-friendly bedside devices that help them stay connected to family. Ultimately, technology should amplify human dignity, not diminish it. An integrated approach to modern aged care Solving this crisis at scale requires more than individual facility upgrades. It demands coordinated leadership to create an ecosystem of innovation. Singapore's government, for example, is not just debating policy, but putting real money behind such efforts. The Productivity and Digitalisation Uplift Grant has already supported nursing homes by deploying the AMRs mentioned earlier. This commitment is further deepened with the government's S$107 million investment in Active Ageing Centre infrastructure upgrades through 2027. This is certainly not about buying a few robots and calling it done. Modern aged care facilities must be smart ecosystems built around innovative care models from the ground up. In a project with a large social service organisation in Singapore, we deployed AI-powered closed-circuit television networks that actively monitor for falls, violence, loitering and other safety concerns across communal areas. When an incident is detected, the system does not just sound an alarm, but it sends targeted alerts to nearby nurses' smartphones via Wi-Fi. These alerts come with context: the incident type, its exact location and three actionable buttons. One shows the live camera feed from the incident location. Another opens medical records of the patient identified via facial recognition, eliminating precious time spent on identification and medication checks. The third connects directly to relevant personnel like the head nurse or other caregivers for additional support. This is representative of the kind of integrated approach that modern aged care facilities need: networks where your building's CCTV infrastructure 'talks' to workflow automation systems, with high-performance Wi-Fi seamlessly connecting everything from emergency response tools to mobile collaboration platforms. Existing aged care facilities make excellent testing grounds for breakthrough solutions like this. From crisis to global leadership in digital care Developed countries worldwide, like Japan and South Korea, face similar challenges with aged care. With its government support, innovative capacity and demographic urgency, Singapore can solve this puzzle first. Ageing populations in Asia are creating significant investment opportunities. The silver economy market value in Asia is expected to surpass US$4 trillion this year, with a projected 7 per cent compound annual growth rate through 2032. By developing world-class aged care technologies and operational models that can be exported globally, Singapore's aged care providers can transform the nation's demographic challenge into a blueprint for dignified ageing. If they crack this code first, the rest of the world will come calling. The writer is director of vertical partnerships, Asia-Pacific, at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise
