medtech startups singapore 2019

01 COMBATING BEDSORES

START-UP: AYZER SENSE

Bedsores affect patients confined to beds on extended periods of hospitalisation. Ayzer, incubated by Trendlines Medical Singapore, is developing a smart device, SABPR, to ensure that blood circulation remains adequate across all parts of the body, to prevent bedsores from occurring. The product is a specialised mattress overlay designed to sense body pressure, map high-pressure regions, and intelligently redistribute the underlying body support to reduce pressure in these areas.

 

02 PAINLESS KIDNEY DIALYSIS

START-UP: ADVENT ACCESS

Kidney-failure patients undergoing haemodialysis treatment have to endure numerous needle insertions every week. Each prick of the needle is painful and can wear out the targeted vein. Advent, which Advance Medtech Group is incubating, has developed av-Guardian, a tiny device that is implanted under the skin of the arm. It guides the needle to the vein that is used for haemodialysis treatment and this will eventually help patients undergo dialysis almost painlessly, just as one puts on a earring.

 

03: BEATING CANCER WITH TECHNOLOGY

START-UP: NDR MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Cancer can be treated if detected early through biopsy. But reliable diagnosis is dependent on the accurate retrieval of tissue from a tumour that is usually small in the early stages of the disease. A successful procedure is dependent on the skill of the surgeon and can be time-consuming. Using artificial intelligence, NDR, which is incubated by NTUItive, developed the Automated Needle Targeting (ANT) System that helps a surgeon guide a needle accurately to organs such as the lungs, kidney and pancreas, as well as the spine.

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04 KEEPING ASTHMA IN CHECK

START-UP: AEVICE HEALTH

A biomedical spin-off from Nanyang Technological University, AEvice Health uses artificial intelligence to help asthmatic patients monitor and control their condition better. The device, Bioasthma, can be placed comfortably on children’s chests to provide objective data measurements for doctors to track their condition. This can prevent the over-prescription of drugs, which could spark other medical conditions such as heart problems and depression. Bioasthma, which will be available later this year, can alert a caregiver if a child is about to suffer from an asthma attack.

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05 DIALYSIS ON THE GO

START-UP: AWAK TECHNOLOGIES

Those inflicted with end-stage renal disease have to spend hours, several times a week, at a dialysis centre to remove waste, salt and excess water from their bodies. This treatment also works on ensuring that there’s a safe level of certain chemicals in their blood, such as potassium, sodium and bicarbonate, and controls blood pressure. This tedious process will be disrupted when Awak, incubated by Advanced Medtech Group, rolls out Awak Peritoneal Dialysis, a device that allows treatment to be performed “on-the-go”. The product is ultra–portable, so it can be used not only at night but also during the day, as and when it is convenient for the patient.

 

06 LUMBAR ON TARGET

START-UP: MEDULLA PRO

A lumbar puncture is a procedure that uses a thin, hollow needle to remove a small amount of fluid from the spine for lab analysis. It also may be used to administer an injection of chemotherapy or other medication into the lower spinal canal. But the procedure can be challenging for some patients, such as those who have experienced degenerative changes. Trendlines-incubated Medulla Pro is now developing a real-time ultrasound-guided imaging system that will help surgeons perform the task more accurately. The start-up is working in partnership with the National Healthcare Group, Trendlines Labs, and A*Star, the national R&D institution in Singapore.

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Photo by Michael Schiffer on Unsplash