Singapore-Sweden partnership to drive global healthcare innovation

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, Miriam Söderström and Singapore’s Permanent Secretary for Policy and Development, Lai Wei Lin. The event was attended by Singapore’s Minister for Health, Ong Ye Kung.

GHIN will identify, implement, and scale health innovations in screening, diagnosis, and monitoring. The purpose of 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.

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.

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.