Singapore’s War on Diabetes: The Deep Tech Story
In April 2016, the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) declared War on Diabetes to rally a whole-of-nation effort to reduce the diabetes burden in the population. According to MOH, we can expect one in two Singaporeans aged 70 to suffer from Type 2 diabetes by 2050; that's one million people of our population. The cost of diabetes treatment is increasing at double-digit rates throughout Asia. In Singapore alone, over S$1 billion is spent each year managing diabetes - a cost that digital healthcare technology aims to reduce.
In this session, join us to discuss Singapore's progress in the War on Diabetes and the role of technology in the prevention, diagnosis, control, and treatment of diabetes.
Date: 14 September 2021, Tuesday
Time: 11:00pm - 12:00pm (Singapore Time / UTC +8)
Programme:
11:00am - 11:05am: Welcome Remarks by SGInnovate
11:05am - 12:00pm: Panel Discussion and Q&A on Singapore’s War on Diabetes: The Deep Tech Story with:
- Bryan Koh, Cluster Head, Asia Pacific Mature Markets and General Manager, Roche Diabetes Care
- Dr Sue-Anne Ee Shiow Toh, Co-Founder and Medical Director, NOVI Health
- Verleen Goh, Chief Food Fighter and Co-founder, Alchemy Foodtech
- Moderator: Dr Kalpana Bhaskaran, Head, Centre of Applied Nutrition Services and the Glycemic Index Research Unit, Temasek Polytechnic and President, Diabetes Singapore and Vice President, Singapore Nutrition Dietetics Association
Bryan Koh, Cluster Head, Asia Pacific Mature Markets & General Manager, Roche Diabetes Care
Now on a mission to bring true relief to people with diabetes, Bryan has been with Roche for over 17 years and was recently appointed as Cluster Head, Asia Pacific Mature Markets and General Manager Singapore of Roche Diabetes Care. Prior to this, he was the General Manager of Roche Diabetes Care Japan, after serving in various country and regional finance leadership roles in Roche Diagnostics and Roche Diabetes Care in Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore. Bryan holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Waikato, New Zealand and an MBA from Victoria University, Australia.
Dr Sue-Anne Ee Shiow Toh, Co-Founder and Medical Director, NOVI Health
Dr Toh is the CEO, Co-Founder and Medical Director of NOVI Health, a healthcare tech company that makes health simple. NOVI provides clinically backed, technology-enhanced solutions for diabetes and weight management. Dr Sue-Anne Toh obtained her medical degree from the University of Cambridge, UK. She attained her specialist qualifications in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology (American Board of Internal Medicine), as well as a Master of Science in Translational Research from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
She was previously Senior Consultant, Endocrinology, at the National University Hospital (NUH), where she led person-centered care models to improve care integration and outcomes, particularly for patients with complex medical conditions. She is a leading expert
in the management of diabetes, lipid disorders, metabolism, weight management and cardiovascular risk management. She has a special interest in incorporating the latest technology, scientific and real-world clinical evidence into improved holistic solutions for
personalised health, tailored to different populations.
Dr Toh is a recipient of national and international awards including American Heart Association Awards, Singapore’s National Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist Award, Public Service (PS21) Gold Award and National Healthcare Innovation and Productivity Excellence Champion Medal. She has been a member of many national clinical, research and innovation workgroups, such as the Ministry of Health Lipid Clinical Practice Guidelines Workgroup, the national Diabetes Research Taskforce and the Precision Medicine: Clinical Practice Adoption Workgroup.
Dr Toh’s translational research focuses on functional characterization of pathways involved in type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular complications. She continues to be active in research
as an Honorary Visiting Consultant at the National University Hospital (NUH) and faculty at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS). Dr Toh was formerly Director, Regional Health System Planning Office, National University Health System (NUHS), driving population health initiatives to achieve a healthy and engaged community. She remains the founding Director of the Singapore Population Health
Improvement Centre (SPHERiC), which was established in 2017 to be a leading centre for population health research.
Verleen Goh, Chief Food Fighter and Co-founder, Alchemy Foodtech
Verleen is the Chief Food Fighter and Co-founder at Alchemy Foodtech, a Singapore government-backed food science company. Passionate about food science and its impact on health outcomes, she co-founded Alchemy Foodtech to work on food innovation that “Empowers Healthier Meals” through everyday foods, to help improve the management and reduce the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes. Her work as CTO gave rise to the company’s patented flagship product, Alchemy Fibre™️. Alchemy Fibre™️ has been tested and proven to work with all carb-based foods to confer health attributes, such as increasing fibre and lowering the glycemic index (GI) of foods without compromising on taste. Verleen is relentless in her research and is continuously working on new innovations that can make a positive impact on human health. Alchemy Foodtech has been recognised by several local and international organisations such as AgFunder AgriFood Tech Innovation Awards 2019, Emerging Enterprise 2019 (Top 3%) by OCBC & Business Times and Top 500 Foodtech companies by Forward Fooding 2019 and 2020.
Moderator's Profile:
Dr Kalpana Bhaskaran, Head, Centre of Applied Nutrition Services and the Glycemic Index Research Unit, Temasek Polytechnic and President, Diabetes Singapore and Vice President, Singapore Nutrition Dietetics Association
Dr Kalpana Bhaskaran is currently the Head of the Centre of Applied Nutrition Services and the Glycemic Index Research Unit at Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore. She championed the design, planning and implementation of Singapore’s and the region’s first accredited Glycemic Index Research Unit (GIRU). She also oversees the Centre’s areas which encompass the Applied Nutrition Research, Food Technology, and the Bistro Lab (a Learning Enterprise). She is currently involved as PI and Co-PI for many ongoing research studies in Glycemic Index, Applied Nutrition, efficacy testing of novel ingredients, development of RTE meals, food valorisation and microbiome. She is the cluster co-chair for the Agri-Food Cluster, which is an initiative to drive applied research at the institution level.
Dr Kalpana has been appointed as an expert advisor to the government in relation to sugar reduction from the sugar-sweetened beverages. She was invited to be a part of Ministry of Health’s (MOH) citizen’s jury and working group on “Patient empowerment” which is one the initiatives by MOH to beat diabetes. She is invited to sit on the Singapore Armed Forces Feeding and Institutional Catering advisory panel, to offer her expertise in food and nutrition. She is invited to be on the Focus Group on “Proposed New Standards on Nutrition and Food Service for Childcare Children and Student Care.” She is selected as Skills Future Mentor by Enterprise Singapore to investigate the learning and development needs of SMEs. She regularly acts as a food and nutrition consultant to local and overseas food companies. She is also on Singapore Food Agency’s Advisory Committee on Evaluation of Health Claims.
She is the President of Diabetes Singapore and the Vice President of Singapore Nutrition and Dietetics Association. She is the Executive Committee member of the Asian Nutrition Society for Sports and Health (ANSSH), Beijing, China. She is the country representative for Singapore for the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, USA.
