Healthcare insurer Aetna to set up regional innovation hub in Singapore

HEALTHCARE insurer Aetna International will set up an innovation hub for Asia in Singapore to develop tailored solutions for Asian markets, based on its global product offerings.

The offerings are aimed at local healthcare market needs in the region, including Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Aetna said on Wednesday the hub will create an end-to-end product development capability in the region, allowing it to develop and distribute products more effectively and bring them to market more quickly.

Ran Wang, Aetna's regional product manager for South-east Asia and Hong Kong and a core member of the innovation hub team, said: "The innovation hub will help us translate Aetna's vast healthcare expertise to markets in Asia and increase our reaction time to market developments in the region, making us more responsive to our clients' needs."

The insurer said James Pisko, an actuary previously based in Aetna's Hartford, Connecticut head office, recently relocated to Singapore to join the hub team. The move is to better facilitate the transfer of knowledge from Aetna's corporate actuarial hub to the local teams to execute timely and accurate business decisions.