Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT), a global leader in healthcare technology, today held its first hybrid conference, Medtronic Open Innovation Conference (MAIC 2022), in Singapore, themed ‘Accelerating Healthcare Technology Innovation’. Dedicated to the medical technology and healthcare technology start-up scene in APAC, the event was attended by Minister of State, Alvin Tan, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Culture, Community and Youth, Government of Singapore, as its guest of honor.
Aimed at discussing the challenges and opportunities available around the healthcare and technology ecosystem in medtech, the conference saw the attendance of over 200 delegates from start-ups, government institutions, and healthcare practitioners along with Medtronic’s partner organizations. Taking the lead in this conversation, Medtronic also unveiled a whitepaper titled ‘Asia Pacific’s Healthcare Technologies Ecosystem: Enhancing Start-up and SME success’, written by the Economist Impact and supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). Cementing Medtronic’s commitment to innovation in healthcare technology, winners from its recent Medtronic APAC Innovation Challenge were also announced at the conference.
Medtronic APAC Innovation Challenge – a reflection of the innovation boom experienced during pandemic
The Medtronic-Economist Impact Whitepaper revealed that up to 55% of respondents cited COVID-19 as an enabler of innovative ideas, rather than a detractor. A reflection of this innovation boom, Medtronic saw overwhelming applications from 323 start-ups and business enterprises from 46 countries across Asia Pacific and beyond vying for a potential collaboration with Medtronic valued up to US$200,000. Five start-ups were crowned winners of the Medtronic APAC Innovation Challenge at the conference. More details about the winners can be found here.
The survey saw a combination of factors encompassing, better government support (38%), greater collaboration with private sector (37%), increased funding availability (36%) and cross-learning platforms between organizations (35%) as the drivers of innovation acceleration. This led to the observation that a multi-sectoral collaborative approach, led by governments in the region, was a key enabler for driving innovations. While not all findings were a surprise, the scale of some findings did highlight the magnitude of some issues facing the healthcare sector overall. One such example was the overwhelming response citing recruitment as the leading cause of concern for over 80% of start-ups surveyed. This echoes the World Health Organization’s (WHO) prediction of a global shortfall of 14.5 million healthcare workers by 20301.
This first-ever study on the region’s healthcare technology sector involves inputs from 150 executives from startups and business enterprises in APAC. The paper also includes in-depth interviews with several industry leaders from the healthcare technology sector as well as from representatives from companies in the technology sector such as SAP.iO Foundries and Microsoft Health.
For more information on the whitepaper please refer to the factsheet or download the whitepaper here.
Drivers and barriers emerged in first-ever APAC study on medtech start-ups and SMES addressed at conference
