We can no longer count the coworking spaces in Singapore on our fingers, but here comes a new one catered to the medicine and healthcare industry.
‘Medtech hub’ Catalyst just opened yesterday (19 August 2019), situated inside the Medical Alumni Association building next to Singapore General Hospital.
It aims to be a space where public and private clinicians, healthcare practitioners, medtech and healthtech startups can connect and work together.
Innovators in the field are encouraged to form new partnerships, in hopes to spur the creation of new products and services that can cure and prevent more diseases, and treat patients better.
Catalyst was created by clinician-formed Aardvark Labs, made up of Dr Lai Kah Weng, Dr Rena Dharmawan and Dr Ian Matthews.
They work together with Padang & Co who will manage and operate Catalyst’s workspace and programmes.
Besides getting to working closely with healthcare practitioners and tap on their expertise, startups will also have access to health institutions like SingHealth, National Healthcare Group and National Heal Innovation Centre who are partners in Catalyst’s ecosystem.
Aardvark Labs signed MOUs with the three organisations yesterday, pledging to foster “technology innovation in the healthcare space and creates new partnerships that deliver real health outcomes and meaningful business impact”.
“As doctors, we always have ideas when we are practicing, but to convert that idea into a product or a service takes a lot of effort,” Dr Lai told Channel NewsAsia.
He added that their space will facilitate with this, as it brings doctors and engineers together to move forward with ideas that can be turned into actual solutions.
In an interview with KrAsia last month, Dr Dharmawan said she hopes younger doctors will start questioning, “Is this the best treatment we can [give patients]?” and asking, “Couldn’t there be a better way to do it?”.
Catalyst currently has more than 10 companies working on its premises.
One of them, ConnectedLife, is conducting clinical trials for a watch that can sense and study the hand tremors for a patient with Parkinson’s Disease.
The medtech hub still has space for up to 50 firms to join them, and Catalyst’s founders are aiming to fill these slots in the next three months.
They offer membership programmes at monthly rates, starting from $100/pax to get four days of hot desking each month, and going up to $500/pax for a dedicated team suite that can house about four to six members.
Interested parties in the health industry can find out more about Catalyst here.
Featured Image Credit: e27
