Finding the right talent is the most significant challenge for healthcare technology (healthtech) start-ups in Asia Pacific, especially for those in their early stages. The top two in-demand skills for the sector include big data/predictive analytics and artificial intelligence.
Healthtech start-ups in the region also cited the lack of data privacy regulations and the challenge of establishing partnerships with public and private institutions as barriers to scaling up.
These are some of the findings from Medtronic’s Asia Pacific’s Healthcare Technologies Ecosystem: Enhancing start-up and SME Success whitepaper, written by the Economist Impact and supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board.
The whitepaper also reveals a mismatch between patient needs and the current focus of healthtech companies. While most healthtech firms focus on treatment and diagnosis, unmet patient needs remain in testing/screening and care delivery.
Credit: Medtronic
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While the cause of this mismatch is unclear, part of the issue could lie in the way business deals have evolved. “Many healthtech firms tend to be too focused on being customer-centric instead of addressing the needs of the overall health ecosystem,” says Charles Ross, principal, Policy and Insights, Economist Impact, at the Medtronic APAC Innovation Conference yesterday.
Dr Rocky Lee, chief operating officer of Ventureblick, shares the same view. “Most investments today are short-term and financially-oriented, [which is why we end up with similar healthtech solutions focusing on specific areas,” he says during a panel discussion at the same event.
Governments, he adds, need to look at and support start-ups that are developing solutions that can help solve social – not just economic – issues to accelerate healthtech innovation. This is because the private sector usually overlooks such start-ups as they require long-term investment.
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How Medtronic is supporting Asia Pacific’s healthtech ecosystem
According to Chris Lee, president for Medtronic APAC, the whitepaper findings reaffirms Medtronic’s view that an ecosystem play is essential for the region’s healthtech sector to flourish.
“No one company can do healthcare alone. [This is why] Medtronic is taking the accountability to lead the conversation and encourage more meaningful collaborations across the innovation ecosystem,” he says.
To walk the talk, Medtronic plans to invest up to US$50 million under its Open Innovation Platform (OIP) over the next five years.
As part of the Open Innovation Platform, Medtronic launched the Medtronic APAC Innovation Challenge (MAIC) last October. The challenge saw 323 start-ups and business organisations from 46 countries across the region vying for a potential collaboration with Medtronic valued at up to US$200,000.
The following companies were crowned winners of the challenge at yesterday’s conference:
- Alimetry (New Zealand), which designs and manufactures wearable medical devices for the diagnosis of gastrointestinal disorders.
- iMedrix (Singapore), which specialises in remote cardiac care solutions enabled by AI, machine learning and cloud technology.
- MediThinQ (South Korea), which develops wearable smart glasses for surgical applications.
- NousQ (Singapore), which aims to revolutionise ventilation tube surgery for tube ears, doing without general anaesthesia and microscope.
- The Clinician (New Zealand), which offers a platform focused on patient-generated health data management and analysis to improve health outcomes and clinical workflows.
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The MAIC builds upon Medtronic’s internal innovation challenge, called MDT Spark. Launched in 2019, MDT Spark provides funding, senior counsel, and resources to implement the most promising ideas around process or product improvement. Medtronic has invested in 24 projects that will help improve its business operation and how it supports doctors and patients, Lee shares in an interview with SGInnovate in December 2021.
Additionally, Medtronic is planning to launch the Digital Medtronic Innovation Center (dMIC) in Singapore this June. Lee explains dMIC will offer immersive training through experiential technologies and a collaborative space to bring in and nurture the latest technologies that can be commercialised across the region.
The centre, he adds, aims to not only benefit healthcare workers, Medtronic employees and start-ups but also policymakers. Having a better understanding of the healthtech space will enable policymakers to ensure regulations enable – instead of hinder – innovations.
Photo: Unsplash
