Spearheaded by Changi General Hospital (CGH) and supported by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the Centre for Healthcare Assistive and Robotics Technologies (CHART) was established with the aim to transform care delivery and optimise rehabilitation. In addition, it also focuses on automating processes, developing virtual hospitals and enhancing medical training. CHART forges collaborations with companies and tertiary / research institutions; it provides the infrastructure for prototyping and opportunities for engineers, researchers and solution providers to work closely with healthcare professionals. Such a model enables co-development and test bedding of healthcare solutions in assistive technologies and robotics.
Since it was set up in July 2015, CHART has worked on more than 20 projects with more than 30 organisations from Singapore, Japan, South Korea and the United States.
CHART will continue to partner industry and academia to develop solutions useful for the following:
- Improve productivity by enabling staff across various care settings to perform their respective clinical and operational roles more efficiently.
- Optimise the work force in healthcare with automation augmenting/substituting some of the more labour-intensive and onerous jobs. This will also increase the value of these jobs.
- Improve health and clinical outcomes with solutions that help care teams extend human capabilities and deliver higher precision in treatment.
- Facilitate care tasks in the community and support independent living and care at home with assistive technologies.
Supported by the National Robotics Programme, CHART works with industry partners and other government agencies to develop a standardised healthcare robotics middleware, such that robotics and medical systems can be integrated as a platform for Singapore’s smart health systems.
For more information on CHART, do visit their website at www.chart.com.sg.
