Grants4Apps Singapore inventors’ digital prototypes help elderly take their medicines as prescribed

Bayer and NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore (NUS), announced that three winning teams from the inaugural Grants4Apps Singapore Open Innovation Challenge have successfully demonstrated their prototypes’ viability to overcome medication adherence barriers in elderly people with chronic diseases.  As part of their Grants4Apps awards, two Singaporean teams and the third winning team from Thailand received support for an incubation period during which Bayer and NUS Enterprise provided them with a S$10,000 grant and access to mentorships, incubator space, and global and regional networks to help them advance their project ideas. 

The three teams have all successfully completed the initial incubation phase and two Singaporean teams will be presenting their prototypes and trial results at the Modern Aging Finale in Singapore on 24th November.

The three winning technologies are:

EyeDEA, Singapore: EyeDEA is a three-in-one solution that will improve patient adherence to glaucoma eye-drops, comprising a customizable medication prescription card, an intelligent portable storage box for eye drops, and an interactive mobile app. The personalized wallet-size visual medication prescription card improves patients’ understanding and patient-doctor communication. The device has the potential to be used in elderly patients on oral medications for other types of chronic diseases e.g. diabetes and heart diseases.

Glycoleap by Holmusk, Singapore: An app that monitors diabetes patients’ food habits, glucose readings, activity levels, weight and medication adherence on a daily basis. As it monitors glucose level of patients daily, dieticians are able to ascertain if a patient has forgotten to take his/her medication. The GlycoLeap platform gives diabetes patients a structured, digital behaviour change program to easily monitor progress and analytics- enhanced coaches to guide and support them. Through the use of both technology and human intervention, the application helps to overcome the barriers of medication adherence.

Pill Pocket, Thailand: An integrated solution that provides personal healthcare assistance from pharmacists for patients with high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and diabetes. Pill Pocket comprises a chatbot linked to pharmacist services such as follow-up care, supporting medication refill and home delivery and even free patient case management. Pill Pocket also has a medication reminder function which triggers alerts via chat.

"Bayer’s Grants4Apps program promotes and supports digital and technological innovations in healthcare across the world. The first Singapore regional chapter of the program impressed us with the quality and originality of ideas that were submitted," says Mr Claus Zieler, Senior Vice President & Head of Commercial Operations, Bayer Pharmaceuticals Division Asia / Pacific. "In the past few months the three winners have demonstrated that their concepts have the potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery and improve treatment results to the benefit of patients, doctors and caregivers. We are delighted to have the opportunity to support the winners in advancing their innovative ideas."

Grants4Apps Singapore is part of Bayer’s global Grants4Apps program that supports innovators for their health-tech ideas which contribute to improvements in health outcomes or pharmaceutical processes. The inaugural challenge was jointly launched by Bayer and NUS Enterprise at the Transforming Aging with Health Innovation Forum, officiated by Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Ministry of Health, Singapore. The challenge closed with 80 applications from all over Asia Pacific including Singapore, Thailand, India, Australia, Taiwan, China, S. Korea, and the Philippines. The three winners were announced in May at the Innovfest Unbound 2017.