By Lily Yang, Partnership and Sponsorship Committee Officer &
Lim Jia Ying, Co-President of Medical Grand Challenge
Phase III Medicine students
The Medical Grand Challenge enters its second year much as it started its inaugural season last year – getting students to address unmet healthcare challenges through developing creative and innovative solutions in collaboration with other National University of Singapore (NUS) students and various healthcare professionals.
It was first introduced in 2017 and was led by NUS Medicine students. This year, the Challenge is being organised by co-presidents Lim Jia Ying, Park Chang Joon, and Vikaesh Moorthy.
“I believe that innovation is critical in the medical field because there must be constant improvements and upgrading to provide the best patient care. I want to help encourage a culture of creativity and innovation among our peers and provide them with a platform to bring their ideas to life,” said Jia Ying, a first-year medical student.
The MGC challenges students to develop practical, real-world solutions to unmet healthcare needs. In this year-long challenge, teams comprising students from multi-disciplinary fields, including Medicine, Engineering, Business and Computing Science, go through interdisciplinary boot camps to develop and refine their innovations, from ideas and concepts to actual solutions and prototypes. They will then present their products at the Finale Night on 14 September 2018, and will also have the opportunity to share their ideas with guests. These hail from various industries that may step in to take truly outstanding student innovations forward to the next stage of development and eventual commercialisation.
Team projects are evaluated by a panel of judges, based on factors such as the impact on healthcare, a sound business model, creativity and innovation, and the feasibility of bringing their ideas to market. The prize for the most outstanding and marketable idea is S$20,000, followed by S$15,000 and S10,000 for the runner ups. There are also five additional special prizes for categories such as Best in Environmental Friendliness, Most Popular on Social Media, and Best Pitch. Each team is helped with with a seed fund of S$500.
“Last year, the winning team led by a Phase II medical student created the Hipportable to assist in patient transfer – such as from the bed to the wheelchair. This novel solution came about after the team noticed caregivers’ difficulties in physically transferring their loved ones. The device enables one-to-one lifting of immobile patients, helping caregivers to transfer their loved ones with ease.
As the second instalment of MGC continues this year, we are excited to see the creative solutions our teams have developed for our healthcare system, and more importantly, how these innovations can bring about patient benefit. Working on a range of different topics, from developing an immersive (Augmented and/or Virtual Reality) solution to tackle eye problem to redesigning the wheelchair to maximise efficiency of patient transfers, 17 groups will be showcasing their work on 14 September 2018 at the NUHS Tower Block Auditorium. Do come down to support the teams. For more updates, please follow the MGC Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/nusmgc/ and the website at https://medicine.nus.edu.sg/cenmed/mgc/nus.html.
Students tackling a problem.