Australia-based iSonea is also at the forefront of smart healthcare market, developing innovative devices to manage and monitor asthma and other respiratory disorders like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The company has developed acoustic respiratory monitoring products that are non-invasive and require no physical exertion by patients. Its devices harness up to the minute digital technologies to herald a new era in management of this global concern.

Robotic surgeries
Industry reports say the number of minimally invasive and robotic surgeries is growing at a three-to-seven times faster rate than conventional surgeries at key hospitals in Singapore. Locally developed robotic surgeries are likely to address financial restraints of hospitals in APAC, thus increasing patient affordability for novel robotic surgeries in the future.

Researchers at Nanyang Technology University and National University of Singapore have developed the Master And Slave Transluminal Endoscopic Robot, a no-scar surgical robotic system, which can be used in tandem with a conventional flexible endoscope. The developers claim it to be the world's first no-scar, no-cut surgery.

Research institutes are developing high-performance robot-assisted surgeries that use sensing technologies such as robotics engineering endoscopic techniques. Olympus in Japan has developed a surgical robotics system, NEDO, a teleoperational system meant for early cancer diagnosis and treatment in gastrointestinal, thoracic and neurosurgery.

"In the years to come more cancer screening of Asian population is expected and robotic surgery is the way ahead. Robotic surgeries are easier to adopt for practitioners, enables shorter procedure time, shorter hospitalization stay, faster recovery and major cost savings," says Mr Lawrence Ho, director and co-founder, Endomaster, the commercializing arm of endoscopic robot system in Singapore.