By Bio-IT World Staff
March 18, 2010 | SINGAPORE--At the end of January, the Stanford University Biodesign Program launched the Singapore-Stanford Biodesign training program in conjunction with the Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR) and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). The purpose of the program is to train the next generation of Asian leaders to develop innovative medical devices to address Asia's growing health care needs.
“Stanford welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with scientists from Singapore in an effort to provide solutions to some of the biggest challenges in health care and medicine,” said Stanford University President John Hennessy, at the official launch of the program. “Through this partnership, we aim to foster innovations in medical technology in Singapore and Silicon Valley that will capitalize on the expertise that Stanford has pioneered in Biodesign.”
The Singapore program will provide a fellowship for four Asian fellows to go to Stanford for six months of training in the Biodesign process. The fellows will be based in Singapore for the remaining six months, of which at least one month will be spent obtaining first-hand experience in determining clinical needs in hospitals and clinics.
They will subsequently develop solutions to address these clinical needs through new medical device technologies and bring concepts to the prototype or proof-of-concept stage. These four fellows will come from different disciplines (engineering, medicine, business) that represent key segments of Stanford's Biodesign process to invent, develop, and commercialize innovative medical devices.