OPENING SPEECH BY PROFESSOR KENNETH MAK, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF HEALTH, MINISTRY OF HEALTH, AT THE DUKE-NUS HEALTH INNOVATOR PROGRAMME DAZZLE DAY 2026, 18 MARCH 2026

Professor Patrick Tan, Dean, Duke-NUS Medical School

Fellows and Mentors of the Duke-NUS Health Innovator Programme

Distinguished guests, and colleagues

1.             A very good afternoon. It is my pleasure to be able to join you at this capstone event for the Duke-NUS Health Innovator Programme, and it is a pleasure to come back at the invitation of the Dean.

2.             First, congratulations to all 17 Fellows on completing a demanding nine-month innovation fellowship at Duke-NUS. This diverse cohort, spanning students from Duke-NUS Medical School, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS College of Design and Engineering, NUS Business School, and an Industry Fellow from Terumo Asia Holdings, exemplifies the multidisciplinary collaboration that modern healthcare innovation demands.

3.             I would also like to thank the clinical and industry mentors for your time and expertise spent on nurturing these young talents. It is through your mentorship and support that makes this programme a success and I hope you will continue to lead these projects into the next phase of product development.

Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2030 (RIE2030)

4.             We do stand at a pivotal juncture. Faced with an ageing population and rising chronic disease burden, we cannot simply rely on old models of care. By 2030, one in four Singaporeans will be aged 65 and above. Coupled with patients presenting multiple comorbidities and rising healthcare costs, this pushes us to rethink how care should be delivered, and how embracing science, technology and innovation can help us overcome these challenges.

5.             Research and innovation will become increasingly important as it will support economic growth and help us to address national priorities and challenges. Hence, the government will invest $37 billion in research, innovation and enterprise in the next five years from April 2026, sharpening the focus on creating value in high-impact areas, sustaining long-term investments in priority domains, and ensuring our basic research capabilities and talent remain globally competitive.

6.             We will step up the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), enabled by trusted and secure data systems, to boost research and innovation under the Human Health and Potential (HHP) Domain. To improve health at the population level, we will harness precision health approaches with interventions targeting high-risk groups, which will strongly complement conventional broad-based public health measures.

Duke-NUS Health Innovator Programme (D-HIP)

7.             The Duke-NUS Health Innovator Programme or D-HIP supports this national priority by uniting dedicated people who are passionate about driving meaningful change through health innovation to bringing innovation from theory into practice. This allows healthcare projects, including those that we will see today, to have a real chance of being developed and implemented in Singapore or across the world to tackle real-world problems.

8.             D-HIP also seeks to nurture a new breed of medical leaders who are not only clinicians, but also scientists and innovators whom we need for the challenges ahead.

Improving Healthcare Professionals’ Productivity and Wellbeing

9.             Our healthcare workforce continues to grow to manage the rising patient load within our national healthcare system. However, growth is finite and we must rethink how our healthcare works could more effectively care for patients without compromising patient safety.

10.         I am heartened to see that some of the projects presented today support this. So, for example, Team VeinGuard’s project introduces automated monitoring to identify early-stage infiltration/extravasation during IV infusion therapy in the paediatric population, this potentially reducing the frequency of manual checks by nurses while maintaining the quality of care.

11.         Similarly, Team ColoCorrect’s project seeks to provide a safe, simple external method to stabilise key colon segments during a colonoscopy and this minimise loop formation. As a surgeon myself, as a junior surgeon in the old days when I was training to do colonoscopies, it was a big bugbear to be able to successfully complete colonoscopies because of looping that took place. And therefore, I can really understand how this will be quite valuable for endoscopies and procedures. This certainly would improve procedural efficiency by reducing insertion time and reliance on trial-and-error manual pressure, therefore reducing physical workload and ergonomic strain for endoscopy nurses while maintaining patient safety and comfort.

Appropriate and Value-Based Care (AVBC)

12.         While we embrace new technology to treat patients, and this has its benefits, we must also continue to ensure that our healthcare system remains sustainable, balancing clinical excellence with responsible resource use. Practicing Appropriate and Value-Based Care can make our healthcare system more sustainable by delivering the right care, at the right time, in the right setting, guided by evidence and focused on what truly matters to patients.

13.         Team Vascura's project on developing a durable, clinically effective solution for achieving and maintaining patency in arteriovenous fistulas used for haemodialysis exemplifies this Appropriate and Value-Based Care philosophy as it has the potential to reduce hospital readmissions for recurrent stenosis. Team UroClear’s projereflectng at evacuating kidney stone fragments of varying sizes after lithotripsy makes more efficient clearance of these stones and reduces the need for multiple or invasive procedures similarly reflects value-based principle of achieving better outcomes with fewer procedures.

Closing

14.         These are some of the projects that you can see afterwards, and they will be competing afterwards for Honours and I wish the very best for all the teams whose projects will be showcased today. I am looking forward to hearing the pitches from each team. Regardless of tonight’s outcome, to the Fellows, do remember that while this may be your final milestone for the D-HIP programme, but your journey as a clinician innovator is only just beginning. I encourage you to continue to develop your ideas and not to falter in your journey to ensure that your innovative solutions reach the bedside of patients, whose lives will be improved by them. I believe that we can expect more from you over the years to come. Thank you once again for the invitation and I do look forward to your presentations.