Trendlines Medical Singapore - a subsidiary of Israel-based start-up incubator Trendlines – has renewed and expanded its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Singapore’s National Healthcare Group (NHG).
Under this, the companies will co-develop innovative healthcare solutions in the areas of: dermatology, infectious diseases, population health, chronic diseases, ageing and rehabilitation.
The expanded agreement also includes new objectives to establish focused group studies to facilitate knowledge exchange and the creation of opportunities that translate research into commercial outcomes.
The two companies had initially signed this MOU three years ago in November 2017 and have since collaborated on identifying clinical needs and refining creative ideation.
This has resulted in the establishment of nine companies which are incubated by Trendlines Medical.
Of these, three are involved in upcoming clinical studies that seek to solve some of today’s most acute clinical challenges.
One such company is Szone, which is developing an easy-to-use, non-invasive hydration monitoring device that acts like a thermometer to detect the body’s hydration level via the tongue.
This device is said to be more accurate and objective than existing methods of fluid restriction and dry weight measurement
Another portfolio company – intervaal – is creating a urinary catheter to address the problem of catheter-associated urinary tract infections that commonly hospital-associated.
It does so using buffer zone and pressure accumulation features to flush the urinary tract and mitigate the removal of bacteria.
Says Eric Loh, CEO of Trendlines Singapore, “the initial three years of collaborating with NHG have been very engaging and fruitful. The partnership has benefitted from both the strong clinical standing of the hospitals and physicians of NHG, as well as the market knowledge and engineering/technological expertise of Trendlines”.
Agreeing, Associate Professor Thomas Lew, a clinical director of NHG’s Centre for Medical Technologies and Innovations (CMTi), and Group Chief Data and Strategy Officer says this partnership has been a positive one.
“This public-private collaboration has allowed us to successfully translate research into medical devices, where our clinicians combine their valuable clinical knowledge and understanding of patients’ needs with the technical expertise of industrial partners to co-create innovative technological solutions,” he mulls.
Shares in Trendlines closed up 0.3 cents or 3.33% at 9.3 cents on Nov 23.
