Singapore To Promote Clinician Driven Innovation
From 2011, SPRING Singapore will focus on promoting clinician-driven innovation (CDI) for enterprises in medical technology and health care sectors.
This was announced at SPRING’s SME CEO Forum: “Collaboration for Growth – The Value of Partnerships”.
The forum brought together SMEs from the education, healthcare, biomedical, logistics and food services enterprises to discuss cross-sector collaborations.
Currently, Singapore’s precision engineering SMEs have strong design, prototyping and production capabilities.
Many of these SMEs are moving up the value chain to focus on the field of medical technology and CDI remains a key strategy in medical innovation.
By working closely with clinicians and users, SMEs are better positioned to create and produce meaningful applications that meet the needs of end users.
The CDI strategy is a five year plan that aims to reach out to at least 1,000 stakeholders. By 2015, SPRING will support 15 to 20 CDI projects. SPRING will provide $10 million of grants to support 15 to 20 CDI projects.
“With useful insights from clinicians, companies can design and manufacture quality products that are driven by clinical and real needs rather than technological advances. Such close collaborations between clinicians and technology companies are beneficial to all parties as it will help accelerate product development and reduce time to market,” said Mr Ted Tan, Deputy Chief Executive, SPRING Singapore.
SMEs in the medical technology sector possess excellent business capabilities, but may not have the knowledge to leverage its design and engineering know-how to develop impactful healthcare applications.
SPRING will enhance awareness of the CDI mindset amongst SMEs, and promote opportunities and platforms for partnerships.
Successful CDI collaborations will be showcased where SMEs can learn and emulate best practices from around the world.
A virtual platform will be explored to encourage continuous discussions among healthcare and medical technology players.
SPRING will also provide greater access to CDI-related technologies and resources. SMEs will be introduced to a network of CDI experts who can provide consultation, knowledge and advice. Bi-annual training sessions for SMEs on CDI methodologies will also be held. To bring like-minded partners together to embark on CDI projects, SPRING will facilitate focus group sessions and CEO roundtables on different healthcare specialisations regularly between clinicians and technology providers to identify potential areas of collaborations.
Partnerships are not just limited to Singapore. Several overseas business missions will be organised for SMEs to understand the dynamic needs in healthcare and how innovations can meet these needs. SMEs will also get the opportunities to understand how players in markets like Europe and USA have worked together to develop innovations that lead to better healthcare delivery and quality service.
According to the WHO, the revenue from sales of medical devices was estimated at over US$210 billion in 2008. Singapore SMEs have the capability and skill to tap this booming sector.
A showcase of a successful CDI project came in the form of the signing of MOUs between Singapore General Hospital (SGH) with its consortium partners EurekaPlus, Innotech Resources and PSB Technologies to design, develop and implement an intelligent RFID prescription drug delivery system.
This system, which is expected to be ready at the end of 2011, will streamline the workflow and fully automate SGH’s drug labeling, conveying and dispensing system.
“SGH is continuously exploring innovative systems to improve work process and operational efficiency. The design and implementation of the RFID prescription drug delivery system is a collaborative partnership that involves the tapping of expertise from various sectors. Automating the system will enable us to significantly improve efficiency of prescription dispensing, patient safety and service levels of our outpatient pharmacy,” said Professor Ang Chong Lye, Chief Executive Officer, SGH.
Technology is reshaping the way the Outpatient Pharmacy is run at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH)
Healthcare experts from SGH are working together with a team of RFID, mechanical, electrical and computer engineers to jointly develop the first intelligent Automated RFID Prescription Drug Delivery System, which will enable the Hospital to significantly improve efficiency and service levels of our Outpatient Pharmacy.
The design and implementation of the Automated RFID Prescription Drug Delivery System is a collaborative partnership between SGH, Innotech Resources Pte Ltd, PSB Technologies Pte Ltd and EurekaPlus Pte Ltd. This integrated RFID system is the first of its kind to be used in any hospital pharmacy.
Current Process at the Outpatient Pharmacy
The current practice of packing prescription medications is laborious, time-consuming, and very labour intensive. Packing and assembling prescriptions at the outpatient pharmacy is largely manual, requiring pharmacy technicians to physically move around the drug storage areas to locate and pack patients’ prescription medications sequentially. The packed medications are placed into baskets, checked and sorted according to queue sequence before forwarding to dispensing counters for dispensing to patients.
The packing process heavily relies on manual resources, making it susceptible to human errors such as packing of the wrong drug, strength, etc. The use of technology and automation such as RFID tracking and bar code scanning for accountability will help alleviate many of these issues.
Implementing the Automated RFID Prescription Drug Delivery System
The new system will fully automate the prescription fulfilment process. It tracks RFID-tagged receptacles containing prescription medications in real-time throughout the medication packing and assembly process, starting with the paper prescription and ending with the medication delivered to pharmacists at dispensing counters.
The implementation of the Automated RFID Prescription Drug Delivery System will improve :
- Manpower utilisation and productivity : Concurrent packing through automated and manual packers will improve efficiency and productivity. Pharmacy technicians can be re-deployed to other areas to further improve service levels at the Outpatient Pharmacy.
- Potential reduction in packing and assembly error rate : Use of concurrent automated picking and auto-assembly can enhance medication safety due to less reliance on human intervention.
- Improved operational efficiency : The new system will reduce time spent walking around the Pharmacy to pack medications for the same prescription. This will also minimise waiting time for patients for their prescription.
About EurekaPlus Pte Ltd
EurekaPlus Pte Ltd was founded in 2003 June 28 in Singapore, by Marcus Tan Cheng Lin, a technopreneur with more than a decade of experience in the wireless & IT domains, including six granted patents to his name.
EurekaPlus specialises in providing system integration in security technologies and communication systems. Its main market is in corporate clients and high net worth business owners and end users.
As part of the company’s expansion plan, EurekaPlus has decided to embark on developing Innovative Health Care Informatics systems, and the SGH Pharmacy RFID Project fits nicely under this category.
In this project, EurekaPlus contributes the Conveyor Optimization and Recovery Module (CORE) which will be responsible for the overall control and optimisation of the operation of the Pharmacy Conveyor System that provides automated fulfillment of drug prescriptions.
About Singapore General Hospital
Singapore General Hospital, a member of Singapore Health Services, is the public sector’s flagship hospital. Established in 1821, SGH is Singapore’s largest acute tertiary hospital and national referral centre offering a comprehensive range of clinical specialties and clinical support services in the region with 1,400 acute beds and about 500 specialists. Annually, 70,000 patients are admitted to the hospital and 600,000 patients attend outpatient clinics.
About Innotech Resources Pte Ltd
RFID Conversion Systems & Supplies specialist, Innotech Resources Pte Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Worldlabel Group and is proudly based in Singapore.
The Worldlabel Group provides Innovative RFID Solutions, Consumable Supplies & Manufacturing equipment for the World.
With factories in Singapore & China, we provide Fully Automated RFID Conversion Machines, RFID Systems & Solutions and Auto-ID Hardware & Consumable Supplies. With strong collaborations with National RFID Centre, PSB, Zebra Technologies, Alien Technologies, Simtech, Avery Dennison RFID & many more, we are greatly blessed with opportunities to jointly develop Innovative and Esoteric RFID solutions.
About PSB Technologies Pte Ltd
PSB Technologies Pte Ltd, a member of the TÜV SÜD Group, was incorporated in 1996. The company is a leading provider of automation solution, providing turnkey automation solutions for multinational companies from a wide range of industry, including medical devices. It specialises in designing and developing customised automated assembly lines/modules which are of high precision and high speed; and capable of high volume production. The company has sound knowledge of the Asian market and works closely with its customers to implement customised automated manufacturing solutions that help to improve their performance, precision and productivity.
Topics: 2010, biomedical, business, CDI, clinician driven innovation, Collaboration for Growth – The Value of Partnerships, economic development, economic growth, Economy, education, employment, EurekaPlus, food services, Governance, government, health care, healthcare, innovation, investment, jobs, logistics, medical technology, medicine, moniter, monitor, news, RFID Prescription Drug Delivery System, Singapore General Hospital, SME CEO Forum, society, SPRING Singapore, value chain
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