Singapore's HealthTech agency, Synapxe, has today launched Singapore’s first HealthTech Co-Innovation Lab with Amazon Web Services (AWS) at its inaugural HealthX Startup Day.
The Synapxe-AWS Co-Innovation Lab will be a space where public healthcare entities can pose healthcare challenges to the industry - from addressing operational productivity challenges, to improving patient experience and delivering quality care. Industry organisations such as HealthTech startups, are invited to reimagine healthcare solutions, experiment with emerging technologies, and build prototypes to address these gaps. The Co-Innovation Lab will also help build innovation capabilities in the Singapore healthcare system through access to AWS technologies and training programmes, as well as industry expertise from Synapxe.
The HealthX Startup Day saw 59 proposals, from 50 startup companies answering ‘Calls-for-Innovation’ to enhance the productivity of healthcare providers (e.g. nurses and doctors) and Population Health as part of a pitch segment (refer to Annex B for the challenge statements and startups’ profile). Shortlisted startups from this event can potentially further develop the project with Synapxe and AWS under the Co-Innovation Lab.
Synapxe-AWS Co-Innovation Lab
Under the collaboration, successful submissions will benefit from:
- AWS credits to access AWS services;
- Ideation workshops facilitated by AWS using Amazon’s Working Backwards mechanism - an Amazon approach to innovation, to help public healthcare stakeholders innovate and develop solutions to address challenges;
- Solutions architects and subject matter experts from Synapxe and AWS to provide mentoring and technical consultations for the Co-Innovation Lab projects;
- Access to AWS training programmes on the use of their services during the course of the project; and
- Access to AWS Activate – an AWS programme that provides startups with credits, technical support, and training to kickstart their journey, and access to the AWS Partner Network with more than 100,000 partners worldwide.
The Synapxe-AWS Co-Innovation Lab is part of the AWS Singapore’s Cloud Innovation Centre, which serves as a hub for public and private sector organisations to use cloud technology to make urban life better and sustainable in Singapore, and across the ASEAN region.
Ms Ngiam Siew Ying, CEO of Synapxe, said, “Synapxe has been gearing ourselves to support the vision of a healthier Singapore even as our population ages. Technology has a pivotal role to play in improving the quality, accessibility, and efficacy of healthcare services for all, and innovation will enable us to turn challenges into opportunities. The Synapxe-AWS Co-Innovation Lab is the first of many that enables us to explore innovations to address healthcare challenges of today and tomorrow. Through HealthX, we aim to break down common barriers to health innovation and improve speed to market.”
Ms Elsie Tan, Singapore Country Manager, Worldwide Public Sector, AWS said, “AWS is committed to enabling the healthcare industry in Singapore to innovate with cloud technologies including generative AI, so they can enhance the delivery of care and empower citizens to live a healthier life. We are pleased to collaborate with Synapxe to establish this Co-Innovation Lab, which will connect public healthcare institutions to startups to create new innovations, and support them with resources to design, prototype, and securely test their solutions. This collaboration will enable the Singapore public healthcare system to better manage population health, improve productivity, and enhance patient experience, while continuously innovating to transform the future of healthcare.”
More Enablers to Support HealthTech Innovation
In September, Synapxe also made available three other HealthX enablers to support partners in accelerating their HealthTech innovations in public healthcare.
Guiding the HealthTech Journey with HealthTech Advisory Centre (HTAC)
Synapxe has established the HealthTech Advisory Centre (HTAC) under HealthX to serve as a one-stop centre and guiding hub for all participants in the public healthcare ecosystem. HTAC offers a comprehensive navigation system to support HealthTech innovators at every stage of their innovation journey, from the initial Call-for-Innovation to the scaling of feasible solutions.
Empowering Innovation with HealthX Innovation Sandbox (HX-IS)
The HealthX Innovation Sandbox is another collaboration between Synapxe and AWS that empowers public healthcare entities and industry technology organisations to experiment, assess, and demonstrate the viability of their innovation projects within a secure, simulated production environment on the Healthcare Commercial Cloud (HCC) built on AWS.
The HealthX Innovation Sandbox is available to all public healthcare institutions and industry organisations, who wish to experiment in a cost-effective way by leveraging the HCC and its suite of services. Participants in the HealthX Innovation Sandbox will also have access to many of AWS’s services supported by HCC to bring their solutions to life. This includes preview access to Amazon Bedrock - a fully managed service that makes foundational models from Amazon and leading AI startups available through an Application Programming Interface (API).
Outcome-Based Spiral Contracting Framework
To enhance speed-to-market, the Outcome-Based Spiral Contracting Framework
by Synapxe enables innovations to scale faster, facilitating expedient deployment while balancing governance and transparency.
This framework allows industry partners to be awarded spiral contracts based on achieved outcomes. With this contracting framework, successful pilots can be effectively scaled to better accrue benefits for the public healthcare sector. This will enable them to do so in a timely and cost-effective manner that does not undermine market competition and transparency.
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