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In Southeast Asia, Singapore attracts e-health key-players for its reliability and its strategic location in the ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations). The partnership between Philips and the dedicated corporate investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), announced in January, is an example among others.

The purpose of this collaboration is to help digital health firms in mid-to-late stage to set up their base in Singapore. How can we explain this attraction for the city-state? The investor Dr. Eddy Lee and Dr. Kevin Yap, lecturer at the University of Singapore and cyber-pharmacy expert, share their views on this niche market.

Singapore: an open market on Southeast Asia

“I think one of the reasons why e-health key-players are interested in the city-state is because we are well known for our excellent level of info-comm technology infrastructure,” Dr. Kevin Yap said.

He also mentioned about the Singapore Healthcare 2020 Masterplan, a program launched by the Singapore government to improve its healthcare system, partially through digital tools. “One of the ways used to make Singapore a “Smart Nation” is to attract foreign companies to co-develop innovative solutions.” Philips has been seduced.

“Our digital capabilities have the potential of making this country a pioneer in the e-health industry,” Dr. Yap noticed. As a matter of fact, Singapore is one of the first countries in the world to have launched a National Electronic Health Record (NEHR).

“[Another strength of the city is] the strong global brand value associated with Singapore products in health, education or financial technology,” Dr. Eddy Lee said. The Singaporean investor – concurrently consulting professor at Stanford University – went back to the city-state last year, after spending years away from the country including stints in four years in Silicon Valley and Lyon in France. In January, he and his Indonesian partner Kevin Darmawanhas launched Coffee Ventures, a venture capital firm supporting early stage health start-ups and other technology start-ups with the potential to enter global markets.

Dr. Lee explained to have chosen to set up their society in Singapore due to its unique location as the gateway to Southeast Asia (estimated 630 million potential consumers), the firm’s extensive networks in the region, and their ability to impact local start-up ecosystem with their investment experience from the Silicon Valley.

SG imposes strict rules to gain the confidence of global companies

Dr Kevin Yap and Dr Eddy Lee are enthusiastic about the future of “the little red dot” in the field of e-health technologies, but they remain realistic. “Digital health is a new product category that challenges existing business models in healthcare,” Dr. Lee highlighted. Would it be the electronic companies who sell a wireless ECG or blood pressure monitor directly to consumers, would it be the insurance company who must buy them and distribute them to the users, or should it be the role of hospitals to offer loans of devices for a monthly software service fee? Adopting the appropriate models to match both the purchasing power and the culture of the city would be critical to the widespread use of such devices.”

For his part, Dr. Yap is particularly aware that there are some issues to resolve in terms of privacy and security. “The government takes it very seriously. In 2012, the PDPA (Personal Data Protection Act) was created. This law governs the collection and use of a person’s personal data and has strict implications with regards to e-health. This can be seen as a benefit from the consumer point of view – he can be assured that his private data is protected – but this may also be an obstacle.” These rules may be a reason why companies specialized in digital health and particularly in data analysis are more limited than those set up in other countries. “However, the PDPA also aims to strengthen Singapore’s position as a trusted, world-class hub for businesses.”

Dr. Yap admits that Singaporean investors are very demanding. “They want to see that, whatever you do, they do will succeed. This way of thinking may slow down the development of start-ups but it is also a good thing. Companies will come to Singapore because they know that the projects launched here are promising. Our fundamentals are strong!” « 

Anticipating demographic transition and making sense of big data

The scientist identifies two key challenges in the medium term. The first is in anticipation of the elderly population in Singapore: the National Department of Statistics has indicated that the median age of the resident population has risen from 34.0 years in 2000 to 39.6 years in 2015. Dr. Yap fears that the growing population of older people may be resistant to the development of new health technologies. “I think we should focus on people who are currently around 40 and 50 years old. They know how to use a computer, they know about smartphone technologies. They could help us make the connection between generations.”

The second challenge concerns big data. The expert believes that the industry players can work to “make sense of all this data for prediction to make it useful and usable for the healthcare industry.”

E-health: Singapore is focusing on its specificity

Could “the little red dot” be the Asian Silicon Valley of eHealth in the coming years? “There is no necessity to replace the Silicon Valley,” Dr. Eddy Lee said. “However, Singapore can become a center of excellence in the diagnosis, therapy and chronic management of Asian-genome specific diseases such as pre-diabetes or certain Asian prevalent cancers.” Dr. Kevin Yap shares the same opinion as him. “Each country may focus on a specific area. For instance, in Singapore, we are trying to tap on with telehealth and telemedicine in order to monitor any patient, any disease, anywhere.”

According to the experts, the digital health market must be seen as a whole. Countries must work together, not against each other.