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APACMed
The Voice of MedTech in Asia
MedTech Industry in APAC
It is predicted that over 60% of the world’s population will be living in Asia by 2030 with one in four people over the age of 60 or older.
Driven by higher healthcare costs, an aging demographic, a rise in chronic diseases and a growing population of ever discerning healthcare consumers, the healthcare market in Asia Pacific is on track to achieve unprecedented growth. By 2022, the value of the APAC MedTech industry is expected to climb at a CAGR of 8.8% to 157 billion USD.
This has created an abundance of opportunities for the healthcare industry to tap into, with innovations and products that are specific to the diseases and chronic health issues that affect those living in Asia Pacific.
MedTech in APAC Improving Health, Transforming Lives
Impact of MedTech during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Since its outbreak, the response of the healthcare industry towards COVID-19 has been phenomenal. We highlight the efforts undertaken by our member companies in 2020. Through this, we hope to demonstrate the critical role of the MedTech industry in helping governments respond to the rapidly evolving challenges through multiple interventions and innovations; and in ensuring that the right technologies are available for providers and patients to diagnose, treat and manage the virus.
APACMed has also collaborated with Deloitte on a paper titled MedTech in APAC: Improving Health & Transforming Lives. The paper aims to increase understanding of medical technologies and elucidate the role that they play within healthcare systems and broader economies, drawing on recent examples from the COVID 19 experience. We hope that this will be an informative tool for governments, providers, patients and other healthcare ecosystem stakeholders and will encourage multi stakeholder collaboration to pursue our shared objectives of saving lives and creating value for patients, health systems and broader economies both during, and beyond, this pandemic.
Supporting Frontliners
- Manufactured 1,000 emergency hospital beds in a period of one week
Product Innovation
- Supported 26,000+ patients by providing meaningful summary of relevant data collected from each device to their healthcare provider, and eased timely manual labour for 315 cardiologists and cardiac electrophysiologists with the robotic process automation (RPA) solution for Medtronic CareLink 360- patient remote monitoring solution
Partnerships
- Partnered with Victorian-based company, JigSpace, to deliver a series of 3D assembly and maintenance training guides for the PB560 Ventilator
- Joined forces with the Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA) and Medicines Australia to play an active role in the #DontWaitMate campaign to assist in the COVID-19 recovery phase to support people in returning to a ‘new normal’
Supporting Frontliners
- Donated COVID-19 detection kits to several hospitals in different countries
- Donated 10,000 units of Wondfo 2019-nCoV Antigen Test to Thai TV 5 to help curb COVID-19
- Donated 5,000 Finecare™ test kits for coronavirus antigen, 5,000 for IL-6 rapid quantitative test and 5 Finecare™ III Plus instruments to Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment Affairs Republic of Indonesia
- Donated 8,400 Colloidal Gold Tests of 2019-nCoV Antigen and 2 units of Finecare™ FIA METER III PLUS to the Ministry of Health and Population, Nepal to support its ongoing prevention and control efforts
- Organized an end-user meeting in Nepal to show their gratitude and thank the frontliners of COVID-19 battling in Nepal. During the meeting, Wondfo also presented the Wondfo COVID-19 total solution to our clients; expressed the responsibility and movements of Wondfo amid the worldwide crisis
Product Innovation
- Provided next generation sequencing reagents to scientists and accelerate to get the sequence of SARS-CoV-2
- Provided high-quality raw materials (enzymes, buffer, antibodies and antigens) to various companies to help them quickly produce detection kits
- Launched Wondfo U-Card Dx™ Automated Rapid Molecular Diagnostic Instrument which can rapidly deliver lab-quality results for detection of 2019-nCoV/flu in 30 - 45 minutes
- Launched Influenza/2019-nCoV Antigen Combo Test which could distinguish flu and COVID-19 infection
Partnerships
- Partnered with Jiangsu Provincial Center for Diseases Control and Prevention to evaluate various types of COVID-19 vaccines
- Launched one of the first antibody test to assist the diagnosis of COVID-19.and organized many workshops with top health authorities or organizations in Thailand, Pakistan, Philippines and other countries to share our understanding and recommendation of clinical application of antibody test
- Organized ‘EXPERT DIALOGUE’ webinar series in China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Japan and Malaysia where respective country experts shared their experiences and insights on facilitating the academic communication, contributing the development and sharing of latest discoveries on topics revolving around COVID-19, including diagnosis, treatment monitoring, post-vaccination screening and etc.
- Co-organized the webinar with APACMed and Roche to exchange views on COVID-19 HOME TEST development and the panelists shared the development, significance and future trends of COVID-19 home testing, gaining much attention from the Asia Pacific and other countries.
Supporting Frontliners
- Contributed PPE kits and ventilators to hospitals
- Contributed 61,000 surgical masks, 1,500 PPEs, 1,000 face shields
- Developed tools and provided recommendations for setting up a PCR Lab and included services like consultation on infrastructure, sample flow and lab operations
- More than USD 4,200 raised by the BD Associates to strengthen the capacity of local healthcare workers
Supporting Frontliners
- Doubled the production and supply of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) from around 100 systems annually during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Training & Certification
- Supported Interventional Therapy during the COVID-19 Pandemic Webinar for interventional specialists in Southeast Asia
Supporting Frontliners
- Provided masks to hospitals and 2,000 care packages to police stations
- Roche Pharma donated 30,000 3-ply masks to 12 hospitals alongside Roche Diagnostics and Roche Shared Services
Process
Re-Engineering
- Implemented Business Continuity Management plan to minimise the risk of service downtime, and expedited the installation and set up of molecular labs
- Supported getting SARS-CoV-2 tests to as many labs as possible, and set up molecular labs by expediting instrument installation, handling infectious samples, training staff on the science behind COVID-19 and RT-PCR molecular tests, optimising workflow efficiency and managing waste after testing, enabling the labs to test more than 5,000 samples a day
Product Innovations
- Partnered with experts to launch the WHO-endorsed RT-PCR test and an automated platform to support the increased number of RT-PCR tests performed worldwide
Partnerships
- Provided medical equipment and food supplies to affected communities in collaboration with partners
- Supported EPIC (Extraordinary People Impacting Communities) by donating food supplies and face masks to Orang Asli (Indigenous) communities
- Organized virtual webinars targeted at healthcare professionals with the Association of Private Hospital Malaysia (APHM) and the Malaysia Medical Association (MMA)
- Held a virtual webinar with Malaysia Association of Clinical Biochemist (MACB) to educate lab technologist segment
Supporting Frontliners
- Imported and distributed over 2 million PCR tests
- Employees donated blood through the “Red Cross” to help alleviate shortages and support the “SleevesUp” virtual campaign
- Offered a 2:1 match for monetary donations made to any eligible non-profits across the world, empowering 90,000 Medtronic employees to identify local needs and direct resources to their communities
Product Innovation
- Publicly shared the design specifications for the Puritan Bennett™ 560 (PB560) ventilator to enable people around the world to leverage their own expertise to evaluate options for rapid ventilator manufacturing
Our Healthcare Heroes
It’s okay not to be okay
Raising Mental Health Awareness with Fresenius Kidney Care
Mental health awareness has become increasingly relevant during the pandemic. Nurses and patients who needed to be isolated on a regular basis were experiencing mental health issues as part of their fight against chronic kidney disease (CKD). Fresenius Kidney Care launched various programs and platforms to safeguard the mental health of the FKC staff. In collaboration with mental healthcare professionals, dialysis nurses, technicians, and other staff had a session with a psychologist. Their stories of hardships were shared on FKC online sharing platform to acknowledge the challenges of what it means to be a dialysis nurse or clinical technician in the 21st century. Through blogs and stories shared by their fellow nurses, yoga and meditation, and COVID-19 resources and tools, clinical teams were able to navigate the challenges of COVID-19 whilst maintaining FKC’s high quality of care.
Creating a future worth living. For patients. Worldwide. Everyday.
Supporting Frontliners
- Donated 1,500 bottles of Softa-Gel hand sanitizers to hospitals, 20,000 masks and 5,000 gowns to government hospitals
- Dialysis nurses biked to work when use of public transport was restricted during lock downs, and worked long hours to cover colleagues infected due to patient exposure
- Donated linovera oil to hospitals, which helps prevent pressure ulcers from wearing PPE for extended periods of time
- Donated 100 PPE kits to medical front liners in various government hospitals
- Equipped medical front liners with remote engagement channels and made face to face visits to update them on the best practices
Training & Certification
- Re-oriented face-to-face skills-building courses to online didactics and virtual proctoring, and sent skills training kits to surgeons’ residences to minimise delays in skills certification
- Set up a Learning Management System to conduct on-demand and live didactics training for dialysis certification of nurses to facilitate continuous flow of certified nurses and ensured patient treatment was not delayed
Product Innovations
- Launched BD SARS-CoV-2 Reagents for BD MAX™ System (real-time RT-PCR test), for the detection of nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2 in swab samples in suspected COVID-19 cases
Partnerships
- Engaged various local government departments and allocated 23 million vaccination syringes along with several sharps containers and alcohol swabs for supply to local government units and private groups involved in mass vaccination programs.
Supporting Frontliners
- Contributed 500 care packages to hospitals in Singapore
- Matched employee contributions dollar-for-dollar when all Roche entities came together to help people adversely affected by COVID-19
- Made cash donations through the World Health Organization (WHO) to fund PPE and other medical supplies
- Pledged US$1 million to support COVID-19 relief efforts globally
- Donated RMB 1 million to the Chinese Red Cross Foundation to support its ongoing prevention and control efforts
Training & Certification
- Pivoted all clinical trainings online for the region (China, ANZ, Japan, Korea, SEA, India) and trained over 27,000 doctors in China alone
- Developed a handbook on best practices and recovery kits to help doctors
- Expanded virtual treatment options by launching products and digital tools , like Invisalign Virtual Appointment and Invisalign Virtual Care
- Provided options to re-direct shipments of products for doctors
- Provided employees with assistance programs and mental health support
Partnerships
- Partnered with Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore (NUS) to facilitate a discussion on border reopening
Supporting Frontliners
- Roche diagnostics and pharma donated KRW 100 million in support of underserved communitities suffering from COVID-19 and KRW 20 million to a charity organization to support children who suffered from abuse who were severely affected by COVID-19
- Donated KRW 27 million worth of medical devices
- Donated 10 smart syringe pumps ("Perfuser® Space" and "Perfuser® Compact Plus") and 20,000 3-way stopcocks (Discofix® C) needed to treat COVID-19 patients in sound pressure wards and ICU
- Supported healthcare professionals and community in the Daegu area and made cash donation worth KRW 20 Million to the Community Chest of Korea provide hygiene products for healthcare professionals and society
Supporting Frontliners
- Contributed three units of ultrasound systems to Ministry of Health, Thailand
- Donated 1,200 RT PCR COVID-19 tests to five reference hospitals/key institutes under the Ministry of public Health
- Made cash donations through the World Health Organization (WHO) to fund PPE and other medical supplies
- Pledged US$1 million to support COVID-19 relief efforts globally
- Donated RMB 1 million to the Chinese Red Cross Foundation to support its ongoing prevention and control efforts
Partnerships
- Partnered with Moderna to include SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests in the ongoing COVID-19 vaccine trials
Supporting Frontliners
- Contributed ultrasound systems to hospitals in Vietnam and care packages including 11 tons of rice, 6,000 sets of masks and hand sanitizers, 100 care packs of milk to vulnerable communities
- Donated 12,000 COVID-19 test kits to the Ministry of Health and the National Steering Committee as part of COVID-19 prevention and control
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Who We Are
APACMed provides a unifying voice for the medical devices and in-vitro diagnostics industry in Asia Pacific. Founded in 2014, APACMed strives to promote innovation and impact policy that advances healthcare access for patients.
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