NUH LAUNCHES INNOVATION HUB TO ACCELERATE SMART SOLUTIONS AND TRANSFORM HEALTHCARE DELIVERY

By driving a robust culture of innovation, the hub will provide a collaborative space to test and scale solutions with partners, speeding progress in patient care and operations

SINGAPORE, March 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The National University Hospital (NUH) has launched the NUH Innovation Hub, a collaborative space designed to accelerate healthcare transformation through partnerships and AI-driven solutions, tackling head on the challenges presented by an ageing population, a shrinking workforce and rising healthcare costs.

Driven by the Kent Ridge Office of Innovation (KROI), which was established in April 2024, the NUH Innovation Hub reflects NUH's broader mission as an academic medical centre to foster a strong spirit of innovation and incorporate digital solutions across patient care and operations. It is part of the broader endeavour for innovation within the National University Health System (NUHS) and underscores the cluster's continuing efforts to accelerate transformation and emerging solutions.

The launch of the NUH Innovation Hub, officiated by Mr Dinesh Vasu Dash, Minister of State at the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth & Ministry of Manpower, will serve as a springboard for budding smart solutions, providing a real-world validation site for technologies by MedTech and AI startups.

"The NUH Innovation Hub is anchored on what is best for the patient," says Professor Aymeric Lim, Chief Executive Officer, NUH. "An ageing population, growing care complexity, and a workforce stretched by demand. These are not challenges we can simply work harder to solve. We must work smarter, and ask better questions about how we can do better for those under our care. The Hub brings together our people and our partners to translate the bold ideas that startups and researchers bring to our doorstep."

Ms Sandy Ho, Assistant Chief Operating Officer (Plans and Strategy), NUH, who also co-chairs KROI, says: "Embracing a spirit of innovation enables us to stay agile amid challenges, adopt strategic thinking and drive positive outcomes. By forging partnerships with government agencies, such as the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), local start-ups, regional and global organisations, we can reimagine healthcare delivery, streamline operations, and elevate patient care."

One of these global partnerships is the newly minted Singapore–Shanghai Medical Innovation Centre (SSMIC), formally launched by NUH and the Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (RJH) in October 2025^[1]. The NUH Innovation Hub will house the SSMIC Singapore office, drawing upon the combined expertise of both NUH and RJH, in accelerating innovations such as Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, and 3D printing in orthopaedics.

A plaque marking the launch of the SSMIC will be unveiled at the opening ceremony, commemorating a strategic alliance for translational research, proof-of-concept innovation, and bilateral knowledge exchange.

Strengthening strategic partnerships through academia and industry collaborations

As part of the official opening, NUH will also formalise two strategic partnerships through Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) signed with the National University of Singapore (NUS) College of Design and Engineering (CDE) and Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd respectively, reinforcing the NUH Innovation Hub's role as a nexus for academia-industry-healthcare collaborations.

The partnership with NUS CDE will focus on joint capability development across NUH and CDE, creating opportunities for hands-on learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and applied innovation. Through structured programmes and experiential learning, the collaboration will enable a two-way exchange of clinical insights and engineering expertise, strengthening innovation capabilities, while developing future-ready talent across both institutions.

In parallel, the collaboration with Elsevier will focus on studying the adoption and user experience of AI‑based search engines for clinical content. The partnership aims to gain insights into how clinicians and healthcare professionals use AI‑enabled tools to access trusted medical knowledge, supporting clinical work and strengthening evidence‑based practice across NUH. Insights from this collaboration will help to shape how such tools are used in real‑world clinical settings, where they add the most value, and where safeguards are required. This is to ensure AI tools support, rather than replace, clinical judgment.

Together, these strategic partnerships underscore NUH's commitment to advancing innovation through talent development, research excellence, and the responsible adoption of AI, while deepening collaboration across academia, industry, and healthcare.

Pioneering smart AI solutions for patient care and operational efficiency

One of the technologies that will be showcased at the official opening of the NUH Innovation Hub, is KROI's flagship innovation, MedBot, a virtual pharmacy assistant that uses generative AI to provide patients with medication information before prescription collection.

MedBot was developed to alleviate workflow pressures arising from manpower shortage and high patient volumes at NUH. Across NUH outpatient pharmacies and the satellite pharmacies, some 2,500 prescriptions are dispensed daily. Each patient counselling session ranges from three to 20 minutes, which contributes to a longer waiting time for patients.

Since its launch in July 2025 at the Kent Ridge Wing pharmacy, the MedBot has progressively been rolled out to the satellite pharmacy at the National University Centre for Oral Health, Singapore. The advent of MedBot has enabled savings of 28 man-hours monthly and annual savings of about $15,400. Post surveys also showed that almost 96 per cent of users felt comfortable proceeding with their medications after receiving MedBot's guidance, which incorporates robust safety guardrails in its design.

Another impactful AI-driven solution that has transformed healthcare delivery at NUH is the ED Summarizer, conceptualised to alleviate the mounting pressures for clinicians within the Emergency Department, who often spend significant time on documentation across multiple systems.

The ED Summarizer consolidates diagnoses, treatments, investigations, and clinical notes into coherent reports whilst seamlessly integrating with NUH's electronic medical record system. It incorporates rigorous human-in-the-loop processes with safety guardrails to maintain clinical oversight and validation. This enables seamless continuity of care across departments and frees clinicians to focus on patient interactions. The integration of the ED Summarizer in the department's work processes has reduced at least 50 per cent of clinicians' documentation time, allowing the medical team more time for patient care.

Building synergy, scaling solutions

Beyond providing an incubator for AI-solutions developed internally, like MedBot and ED Summarizer, the NUH Innovation Hub will also serve as a sandbox for technology partners and start-ups to co-create and scale emerging technologies, such as digital twins, genomic medicine, and Internet-of-Things-assisted wearable devices, which have the potential to reduce healthcare costs and improve population health outcomes.

The NUH Innovation Hub works closely with IMDA through its Open Innovation Platform, to tap into the local startup ecosystem to identify clinical and operational challenges within the institution. One of the challenges that has been highlighted include the need to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of skin prick testing to help diagnose allergic conditions, through digital measurement and documentation, to aid staff in managing high patient volumes, while ensuring a smooth experience for patients.

The NUH Innovation Hub is also concurrently collaborating with IMDA on two other projects, including an immersive fire preparedness training curriculum for staff, integrating the unique and complex challenges fire emergencies in hospital settings can present, as well as building an integrated digital platform to streamline clinical education operations.

Within the NUHS academic health system, the NUH Innovation Hub is partnering the Digital Advanced Technology Accelerator at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, to explore the possibility of organising a hackathon with startups, with the aim of advancing health through digital solutions that meet real market demands.

Along the same vein, the NUH Innovation Hub has also been designed to support staff training, directly building capabilities and enhancing uptake of AI solutions that are rolled out across NUH.

"Talent development is a crucial aspect of our work, in driving leadership, deploying AI responsibly and increasing AI literacy, which will enable us to nimbly navigate evolving challenges in the healthcare landscape," says Ms Ho. "To date, more than 3,400 of our staff have attended innovation-related training programmes."

By fostering a robust spirit of innovation and cultivating an environment of co-creation and rapid validation, KROI and the NUH Innovation Hub ensure that innovations – from AI tools to system-level changes – are not only feasible but also scalable, ultimately driving healthcare transformation across the cluster, and delivering meaningful impact to the communities it serves.

About the National University Hospital­

The National University Hospital (NUH) is Singapore's leading university hospital. While the hospital at Kent Ridge first received its patients on 24 June 1985, our legacy started from 1905, the date of the founding of what is today the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. NUH is the principal teaching hospital of the medical school.

Our unique identity as a university hospital is a key attraction for healthcare professionals who aspire to do more than practise tertiary medical care. We offer an environment where research and teaching are an integral part of medicine, and continue to shape medicine and transform care for the community we care for.

We are an academic medical centre with over 1,200 beds, serving more than one million patients a year with over 50 medical, surgical and dental specialties. NUH is the only public and not-for-profit hospital in Singapore to provide trusted care for adults, women and children under one roof, including the only paediatric kidney and liver transplant programme in the country.

The NUH is a key member of the National University Health System (NUHS), one of three public healthcare clusters in Singapore. For more information, visit www.nuh.com.sg

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SOURCE National University Hospital (NUH)