NUS Medical Grand Challenge

"What is the current state of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare today?" Colleagues and friends that know me, know that I have a penchant for solving "impossible" problems. Sometimes in unexpected ways. Sounds crazy? Lets do a deep dive to explore. Any potential path forward with acceptable risk, reasonable odds of succeess? We do some scenario analysis, commit to a plan, and get it done. 2 months ago when Patrick Chia , uncle of Singapore's #NEHR national electronic health records approached me with such an "impossible" problem, there was only one answer (edit: from "grandfather" to reflect his youth). We were having a discussion with some private sector GP and specialist colleagues from GP plus co-op on the above topic. Things have been moving so fast in AI that it has been impossible to keep up, & we wanted to know how best we could use it for the benefit of our patients. "Can we bring some of the greatest minds in the space into one room to discuss this before the end of the year?" I had to say yes. And if we say yes, we get it done. Fast forward to today, we are honored to have the support of an all star line-up of speakers and panelists for this conference on 9 & 10 Nov at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. Singapore, planned focus group discussions with GPs and allied health to go in-depth on primary care use cases of AI in #HealthierSG as well as a symposium on the training of Spirometry technique for GP and allied health colleagues. Many AI expert colleagues, industry stakeholders including friends from Pfizer and AstraZeneca , innovators like Mesh Bio , as well as many others have stepped forward to pitch in and get involved. Certainly looking forward to the exciting discussions coming up that weekend. Join us! Han Chong Toh Rosa So Ravinder Singh Sachdev Sun Yan Yoann Sapanel Praveen Deorani Robert JT Morris Eric Yap Peng Huat Clara Ngoh Andrew Wu Daniel Ting Seo Yi CHNG Andrew Makmur Sheryl Ng Yik Voon Lee Leong Kit Gerard Lin

Enjoyed catching up with innovators from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Digital Accelerator over the weekend, along with esteemed organizing team members and fellow alumni Chern Chet Yong Zachery Yeo Looking forward to exciting break throughs from these innovators in the weeks ahead! 💯

Absolutely blown away by the spectrum of the medical innovations submitted by over 100 international undergraduates participating in this years' run of the NUS Medical Grand Challenge 🌍💯 Firstly, I would like to shout out the entire student organising committee led by Yinn Yi Lee and Wang Weihan this year for organising such a smooth and impactful run of the competition! Secondly, a huge thank you to the expert judges, speakers and mentors for dedicating your time and sharing your invaluable expertise this year. Your support and guidance were instrumental in shaping and inspiring these projects. 🩺✨ Hwee Juin Lee Yap-Seng CHONG Dujeepa D. Samarasekera Dean Ho Audrey Chia Anand Bhojan Cheng Ooi Low Rosa So Dr. Karan Thakkar Bernard Ng Karen Lee Noel Mathew V. Dr Daniel HC Lee 李贤杰 Roland Xu Jia Ming Lee Salman Jaffer Adrian CHUA Jaggu Jagadesh Trin Lyovarin Dr Smily L. Ryan Ware Andrew Wu Leong Kit Finally and most importantly, heartfelt congratulations to all the participating teams! Your projects demonstrated exceptional critical thinking and a depth of engagement with patients in your ideation journey, leveraging the latest hardware sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Many of you demonstrated innovations addressing complex healthcare challenges and even very personal issues for coping with complicated interventions like stomas or symptoms of mental health illnesses that patients endure on a daily basis. 💡💪 These solutions reflect not only your skills but also a deep empathy for improving patient outcomes. Looking forward to many more successes in the years ahead🌟🙌

Finally, we conclude the series with prize presentation 🏆 We would like to congratulate the winning teams for their outstanding performance and ideas 🔥 Special Awards 💫 Long-Term Sustainability Award 🌎: Team Bioshield Social Responsibility Award 💗: CERVIVAI People’s Choice Award 🤗: The WiZards Open Category Winning Teams 1st Place🥇 : EmpowHer 2nd Place🥈 : Mindfully 3rd Place🥉 : Team Carciscan Nascent Category Winning Teams 1st Place🥇 : Tomy 2nd Place🥈 : MediGuard 3rd Place🥉 : The NeuroVisionaries A huge thanks to all our judges for making MGC possible 🙏 Great job to all participants for completing your MGC journey, we hope you had a fruitful experience and gained many new insights 🤩💡 See you in MGC 2025!!! 🫡

Next up, we have 11 teams from the Nascent category and 5 teams from the Open category pitching their ideas 🗣️💡 We also invited Team C-Blu, Grand Prize Winner of 2024 Bench to Bedside Competition, from The University of Utah, to showcase their project 🙌

Here’s a series of 3 posts to wrap up The Grand Finale which took part on 17 Aug 2024 🙌🔥 First up, we have participants showcasing their ideas during the poster presentation 🗣️ and judges making their rounds to take a look at the projects ✍️ Featuring our Guest of Honor, Ms Lee Hwee Juin, who also went around to look at the projects 🌟

“But if you are just realistic, you become pedestrian, plebeian, you will fail. Therefore, you must be able to soar above the reality and say, ‘This is also possible’ - a sense of imagination.” - Mr Lee Kuan Yew. The quote was a great opener to the NUS Medical Grand Challenge which I had the privilege of participating in as a judge. I was truly impressed with the participants’ enthusiasm for developing solutions outside their curriculum to contribute to solving some of the difficult problems in healthcare. As I reflect on my own journey building up Foundation Healthcare Holdings alongside a passionate team, these are some advice for our budding entrepreneurs: ✳️ 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘆 It is always important to remember your North Star and the reason why you started, it helps you get through some of the most difficult days. ✳️ 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝘁 It was so encouraging to see the teams being multidisciplinary. Make time to expand your horizon, step out of your comfort zone, and connect with others from different disciplines and backgrounds - original ideas come from the most unexpected settings. Shout out to Dinesh VG for the invite, Wang Weihan Yinn Yi Lee for organising a great event, and my fun co-judge Bernard Ng!

🌟Thats a Wrap! 🌟 As we conclude this year's Medical Innovation Challenge, we are filled with immense pride and excitement about the future of healthcare. This year, we witnessed some truly groundbreaking ideas from brilliant university undergraduates from Singapore, Indonesia, China, Thailand, USA, and many others that are poised to revolutionise the medical field! A few standout projects from this year's competition include: 🏥 Facilitating Post-Operative Care for Patients with Stomas: A team developed innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for patients with post-operative stomas, addressing a critical need with empathy and advanced technology. 🔍 Monitoring Fluid Overload with Innovative Devices: Another team created a state-of-the-art medical device that can monitor fluid overload in real time, potentially preventing complications and saving lives. 🤖 AI Solutions for Peri-Natal Labour Progress Monitoring: We saw the integration of artificial intelligence in healthcare, with a project focused on using AI to monitor peri-natal labor progress, aiming to enhance maternal and fetal outcomes. 📱 Digital Platforms for Women’s Health and Mental Health: Teams also ventured into the digital space, developing platforms that focus on improving women’s health and mental well-being, underscoring the importance of holistic care. These projects are just the beginning! 🚀 To all our participants: This challenge is the start of your journey. The real work begins now, as you continue to refine and develop these ideas into real-world solutions. Your dedication and passion have the power to make a profound impact on patient care. Let’s keep pushing the boundaries, challenging the norms, and driving innovation for the betterment of healthcare. To all our judges, advisors, and tech mentors: Thank you very much for your lending your valuable time and expertise to mentoring these students! Congratulations to all teams! 🎉 Keep innovating, keep dreaming, and most importantly, keep working for the benefit of patients everywhere. #MedicalInnovation #HealthcareRevolution #FutureOfMedicine #InnovateForGood #PatientCare #AIinHealthcare #DigitalHealth #WomenHealth #MentalHealth #MedicalDevices #InnovationChallenge2024

Last weekend, we reached the finale of the NUS Medical Grand Challenge (MGC) 2024, marking the end of an incredible 8-month journey with our project, Elvac. While we didn’t emerge as finalists, I couldn’t be more proud of what our team has accomplished and the growth we’ve experienced throughout this journey. Elvac was born out of a passion to improve vaccination uptake among elderly patients, particularly targeting flu and pneumococcal vaccines under the Ministry of Health’s vaccination program. Our aim was to create an intuitive app that not only educates but also empowers patients above 65 to take charge of their health, ultimately contributing to public health intervention efforts. This journey would not have been possible without the unwavering support and guidance of our mentors. Their expertise and encouragement were invaluable, helping us navigate the challenges and refine our ideas into a project we believe has real potential to make a difference. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Dr Dinesh VG, Dr Trin, and the entire NUS MGC team (Caroline Chan, Elliot Chong, Srivarshini Saravanaperumal, Meenu Lekha Premakumar, Celeste Chng, Megan Tan Ying Xun, Kaveen) for this incredible opportunity. The experience has been truly enriching, and I’m excited to continue working on Elvac and exploring new ways to contribute to the healthcare landscape. Thank you to everyone who supported us along the way! #NUSMGC2024 #HealthcareInnovation #VaccinationAwareness #Elvac

Amongst many International and Local Teams, I’m honoured to have my team make it as a finalist (top 5) at the NUS Medical Grand Challenge 2024 held last Saturday. The Medical Grand Challenge is a student-led medical innovation program that emphasises healthcare impact and innovation. The competition places a strong focus on marketing and the viability of solutions, pushing us to think beyond just medical needs. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have grown and learned alongside a dedicated and passionate team, with members from the Faculty of Engineering Madhulika P (Biomedical), Deepsri Jayachandran (Biomedical), Cheng En Chow (Electrical), Ajay Balaji (Mechanical), School of Computing Mikhil Anand (not in picture), and team leader Kaaviya Ramesh from Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. For the past eight months, we learned valuable lessons in designing solutions, user testing, and preparing for the finals under the exceptional guidance of mentors Dr. Dinesh and Dr. Leong Choon Kit. Our team focused on developing Singapore’s first personalised and localised healthy eating guide. We pitched to healthcare service providers like Fullerton Health, Singapore Nutrition Dietetics Association and even had the opportunity to test our solution on a pilot scale. This journey has taught us the importance of persistence, collaboration, and the impact of user-centric design in healthcare. While making it to the finals was a proud achievement, the real reward lies in the skills we've developed and the relationships we've built. I'm truly thankful to have been part of such an amazing and supportive team from start to finish and it has been an incredible and fulfilling eight months.