Johnson & Johnson Vision, A*Star sign MOU for S$15m Eye Health Digital Innovation Consortium

SINGAPORE’S Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) and Johnson & Johnson Vision will establish an Eye Health Digital Innovation Consortium, jointly investing S$15 million over 3 years, under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on Tuesday (Jul 12).

As the first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific, the consortium will forge public-private partnerships between eye care professionals, academia, and the industry to bring about innovations addressing eye health needs, said Johnson & Johnson Vision, which is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson MedTech, in a press release.

Over the next 3 to 5 years, the consortium will focus on areas such as improving eye healthcare delivery to patients in Singapore and beyond; optimising collaboration between the private and public sector in eye healthcare delivery; and developing technological processes to support primary eye healthcare enterprises.

The consortium, which will be hosted at A*Star’s Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), will begin with 3 new projects: MyoA*Bank, a digital data consent management platform that consolidates anonymised data from eye health studies; “behaviourally-informed messages” to improve eye health behaviours such as going for comprehensive check-ups; and e-referral and e-triaging for step-up and step-down care in the community.

IHPC is contributing its expertise in blockchain and trust technologies to develop such privacy-preserving data-sharing solutions, as well as in computational behavioural modelling and artificial intelligence.

“We look forward to working closely with the ecosystem to create new value in translating eye health research technologies into digital solutions to benefit patients and open new business opportunities,” said Su Yi, executive director at IHPC.

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"Infusing our high science with greater access to eye health data is critical as we work to shape the standard of care, particularly for APAC’s continued battle with the rise of myopia," said Peter Menziuso, company group chairman of Johnson & Johnson Vision.