20 November 2024
SINGAPORE — The National University Health System (NUHS) and Sahlgrenska University Hospital have formed a strategic partnership with technology partners AstraZeneca, Ericsson and Business Sweden to launch the Global Health Innovation Network (GHIN) that aims to drive global healthcare innovation.
The partnership was formalised through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Singapore-Sweden Royal Business Forum, witnessed by State Secretary for Healthcare, Ms Miriam Söderström and Singapore’s Permanent Secretary for Policy and Development, Ms Lai Wei Lin. The event was attended by Singapore’s Minister for Health, Mr Ong Ye Kung.
GHIN will identify, implement, and scale health innovations in screening, diagnosis, and monitoring. The purpose of the GHIN is to facilitate the actual implementation of innovative technology, which is the major challenge globally in driving healthcare innovation forward.
This collaboration marks the first concrete initiative under the government-to-government MoU on healthcare innovation collaboration, signed by Singapore and Sweden during the same event.
Scaling innovations and sharing expertise
The GHIN brings together various players in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and communication industries. NUHS and Sahlgrenska University Hospital will take on a shared role of providing clinical experience and knowledge, hospital resources for prototype testing and research, sharing research materials and publications as well as providing mentoring support. By leveraging their collective expertise, all the partners will work towards facilitating the development of novel technologies in healthcare, successful implementation and scaling up of these healthcare services.
“Implementing the newest technologies and leveraging opportunities from research and innovation worldwide strengthens global healthcare,” states Dr Boubou Hallberg, CEO, Sahlgrenska University Hospital. “This collaboration also helps new treatments reach patients from all over the world faster.”
“As an academic health system, we will bring together expertise in clinical care, research, and education to support this collaboration,” states Adjunct Professor Jason Phua, Deputy Chief Executive (Clinical Transformation), NUHS.
“When we combine our strengths with the unique capabilities of our partners, we can contribute meaningfully to the advancement of patient care and the improvement of global health.”
Ms Kim Suyeon, Country President, AstraZeneca Singapore says, “We are really excited to come onboard this meaningful collaboration, leveraging AstraZeneca’s global healthcare innovation platform, A.Catalyst Network. As part of a broader network of ecosystem stakeholders, our role as a founding industry partner is to support the scouting of innovative solutions towards solving identified problem statements across the healthcare systems, potentially helping to scale effectively implemented solutions to other markets via our network.”
“High performance connectivity based on 5G will transform healthcare. By joining the GHIN as a founding partner, we will fuel innovation in healthcare services based on our ability to blend technological innovation with medical knowledge. With 5G, we can extend the reach of the healthcare system to many people for whom healthcare access and treatment is a challenge.” says Mr Daniel Ode, Head of Ericsson Singapore, Philippines and Brunei.
Business Sweden will serve as the project management office (PMO) for GHIN, facilitating collaboration and strengthening connections between Swedish, Singaporean, and international stakeholders.
“I am proud that Business Sweden can support GHIN and hope that we can enable a strong and productive collaboration. We will focus on expanding its reach by bringing in new partners and aim for faster adoption and larger scaling of healthcare innovations worldwide.”
GHIN has been created as an open innovation ecosystem, welcoming collaborations with Swedish, Singaporean, and international stakeholders. While the establishment of the GHIN is still in the early stages, the founding members hope that more partners will come onboard in the years ahead, to amplify their collective efforts in creating more effective healthcare solutions globally.
For media enquiries, please contact:
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TOH Wei Shi
Senior Assistant Manager
Group Communications
National University Health System
+65 9753 9619
wei_shi_toh@nuhs.edu.sg
Press Department
Sahlgrenska University Hospital
+ 46 31 342 96 00
Wendy CHING
Corporate Affairs Manager
AstraZeneca Singapore
+65 91702820
Wendy.ching@astrazeneca.com
Ruchika Batra
Heads of News & PR
Ericsson Southeast Asia, Oceania and India
+919871693953
Ruchika.batra@ericsson.com
Pezhman Fivrin
Head of Press, Business Sweden
+46730359168
pezhman.fivrin@business-sweden.se
About the National University Health System (NUHS)
The National University Health System (NUHS) aims to transform how illness is prevented and managed by discovering causes of disease, development of more effective treatments through collaborative multidisciplinary research and clinical trials, and creation of better technologies and care delivery systems in partnership with others who share the same values and vision.
Institutions in the NUHS Group include the National University Hospital, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, Jurong Community Hospital and Alexandra Hospital; three National Specialty Centres - National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS), National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS) and National University Centre for Oral Health, Singapore (NUCOHS); the National University Polyclinics (NUP); Jurong Medical Centre; and three NUS health sciences schools – NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (including the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies), NUS Faculty of Dentistry and NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
With member institutions under a common governance structure, NUHS creates synergies for the advancement of health by integrating patient care, health science education and biomedical research.
As a Regional Health System, NUHS works closely with health and social care partners across Singapore to develop and implement programmes that contribute to a healthy and engaged population in the Western part of Singapore.
For more information, please visit www.nuhs.edu.sg.
About Sahlgrenska University Hospital
Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg is Sweden's largest hospital and one of the largest university hospitals in Europé and focuses on patient care, national highly specialized care, education, research and innovation. Sahlgrenska University Hospital has the expertise to perform the most advanced treatments and procedures that today's medical developments allow. At Sahlgrenska University Hospital, the inhabitants of western Sweden are close to advanced healthcare that is also in demand nationally and internationally. https://www.sahlgrenska.se/en/
About AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN) is a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of prescription medicines in Oncology, Rare Diseases, and BioPharmaceuticals, including Cardiovascular, Renal & Metabolism, and Respiratory & Immunology. Based in Cambridge, UK, AstraZeneca’s innovative medicines are sold in more than 125 countries and used by millions of patients worldwide. Please visit astrazeneca.com and follow the Company on social media @AstraZeneca.
About Ericsson
Ericsson’s high-performing, programmable networks provide connectivity for billions of people every day. For nearly 150 years, we’ve been pioneers in creating technology for communication. We offer mobile communication and connectivity solutions for service providers and enterprises. Together with our customers and partners, we make the digital world of tomorrow a reality. www.ericsson.com
About Business Sweden
We are business developers with a unique mandate to help Swedish companies grow global sales and international companies invest and expand in Sweden.
Business Sweden is jointly owned by the Swedish state and the Swedish business sector with a mandate and a mission to help international companies gain access to the Swedish market and help domestic ones utilise it as a platform for expansion. Our clients range from start-ups via small- and medium sized businesses to multinational enterprises – with tailor-made services catering to all of these segments.
We have an holistic approach, offering both hands-on support, strategic and practical expertise and a unique capability to create access where access is hard to get, both in Sweden and through our 44 offices across Europe, Americas, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific. Our expertise, presence and exclusive access to networks and stakeholders in both the public and private sectors in these markets gives us a supreme ability to help clients navigate regional business structures in order to expand their business and unlock growth.
In short, we help companies turn opportunities into reality.