Fri, November 20, 2009
SINGAPORE, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Singapore announced on Friday that it will inject 36 million Singapore dollars (25.9 million U.S. dollars) into new programs to give a greater push to its growing medical technology industry locally.
The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore's leading research agency said that the programs included the collaboration between A*STAR and CIMIT (Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology) in Boston, the United States and A*STAR's Biomedical Engineering Program.
Under the A*STAR-CIMIT collaboration, engineers, clinicians or scientists in Singapore will be able to work with clinicians in Boston to come up with engineering solutions that have clinical and market relevance.
Besides creating opportunities for impactful innovations, the collaboration will also provide an environment conducive to training innovators for the growing medical technology industry in Singapore, which in 2008, had an output of 3 billion Singapore dollars (2.09 billion U.S. dollars) and employed more than 8,000 people locally.
Under the Biomedical Engineering Program, grants have been awarded to eight new research projects helmed collaboratively by research engineers at A*STAR and clinicians in local hospitals.
These projects aim to develop and provide cost-effective and innovative solutions for healthcare systems, which will be highly relevant to patients. The intention is for these innovations to eventually be developed for the local, regional and international markets.
