Senior Management
Associate Professor Henry Ho
Executive Director
Henry HO is the Chairman for Division of Surgery and Surgical Oncology, Singapore General Hospital and National Cancer Centre Singapore; Academic Chair for Surgery Academic Clinical Program, SingHealth. Currently A/Prof Henry is also holding the appointment as Director for SingHealth Duke-NUS Innovation Centre.
A/Prof Henry is a urological surgeon that specializes in robotic surgery for urological cancers such as prostate & kidney. He received his MBBS and Master of Medicine (Surgery) from the National University of Singapore. After his accreditation as a Urologist, he further specializes with fellowships in robotic surgery in University of Innsbruck, Austria and Stone surgery in Hamburg, Germany.
A/Prof Henry is an advocate for innovation in his clinical career. He is an early adopter of new technology with robust scientific methodology. Amongst his many publications, the randomized control trial on bipolar technology for prostate enlargement changes the practice of urologist internationally.
He went on to be an innovator with the invention of Mona LisaTM transperineal prostate biopsy device (Biobot Surgicals Pte Ltd). He brought this project from a research project to commercial company. The device provide safe and accurate diagnosis of prostate cancer in men. It is used in many Singapore hospitals, Germany, Australia and China.
A/Prof Henry also contributes to the Singapore innovation ecosystem. He was the first doctor in SGH/SingHealth to be awarded the Singapore-Stanford Biodesign Fellowship Award by A*STAR in 2011. He started the Medical technology Office (MTO) in Singhealth to help more clinicians onto this innovation journey. Its goal is to nurture doctors, nurses and allied health with grants and technology matching to become clinician-innovators. His NMRC is Co-chair of the Clinician-innovator taskforce and Chair for clinician-innovator development grant.
A/Prof Henry leads the clinical test-bedding and adoption in Singhealth-DUKE NUS Academic Medicine Innovation Institute which aims to facilitate implementation of technologies with external partners into the healthcare system. to imbue such vibrant exchange and collaboration (Digital, technologyand process), there will be a healthcare Innovation and transformation center.
Pauline Tay, Ph.D
Director
Prior to joining NHIC, Pauline was Executive Director and Head of Innovation Partnerships at UBS Tech Connect, responsible for establishing strategic partnerships across tech ecosystems in South-East Asia, facilitating access to capital and connections. Simultaneously, she served as Chairperson of the Singapore Business Federation SME Council’s Subcommittee for Technology, Innovation and Productivity, and acted as strategic advisor to a local biotech startup, Celligenics, for which she served as Chief Operating Officer prior.
Before this, Pauline spent 25 years of her career in public sector, in various leadership roles in science and technology. She was Senior Deputy Director, serving dual roles at the Strategy and Innovation and Enterprise (I&E) Directorates at the National Research Foundation (NRF) of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). She was responsible for formulating and implementing strategies and programmes to catalyse innovation and enterprise development through technology. During her term of office, she led the establishment and implementation of key I&E signatures, including the Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology (SWITCH), Decentralised and Central Gap, Pollinate, The Elevator, National Lean Launchpad, Innovation Clusters, Industry-Alignment Funds, Technology Incubator Scheme, Early-Stage Venture Funds, SGInnovate and Xora.
Pauline was also a founding team member of Intellectual Property Intermediary (IPI), where she established and headed the Healthcare and Personal Care cluster. The role involved providing technology and intellectual property intelligence, scouting and matching services to industry, assisting companies to adopt technologies in their business models.
Prior to that, Pauline spent 12 years of her early career in the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), seeing the transformation of the then National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) into A*STAR. She was involved in the development of the biomedical science sector in her role at the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) in tandem with the Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) and Economic Development Board (EDB), establishing and managing research institutes and talent development programmes within A*STAR. She was on the initial team that worked to establish the Genetic Modification Advisory Committee, Bioethics Advisory Committee and A*STAR Graduate Scholarship. She later went on to do her Ph.D. and postdoc in stem cell biology, in a collaborative project involving the Singapore Stem Cell Consortium at A*STAR’s Institute for Medical Biology (IMB), the Institute of Bioengineering at Miguel Hernández University, Spain, and the first stem cell startup in Singapore, Embryonic Stem Cell International (ESI).
Pauline started her public sector career in productivity training and consultancy at the Singapore Productivity and Standards Board (PSB), which is now Enterprise Singapore.
Pauline holds a Ph.D. in Stem Cell Biology and a B.Sc. in Microbiology and Biochemistry from the National University of Singapore, with a postgraduate certificate in Advanced Biotechnology from the Osaka University School of Medicine, Japan.
Innovation Team
Michael Ho, Ph.D
Head, Innovation and Strategy
Prior to joining NHIC, Michael was a Scientist with A*STAR’s IME for five years. As a scientist in the Biomedical Integrated Circuit group, his primary focus was on Medtech innovation, working closely with clinical partners in areas of miniaturised medical device innovation and development. Michael has led and developed close to ten implantable and wearable medical devices, in areas of diagnostic and interventional solutions. He was involved extensively throughout the Medtech development cycle, from identifying the clinical needs through to clinical trials. He was awarded two research grants, and has authored/co-authored more than 30 peer reviewed papers, one book chapter, and filed two patents.
Michael holds a Ph.D from the University of Newcastle, Australia and completed the postgraduate course from Singapore Stanford Biodesign Innovation Class in 2014.
Tan Ee Lim, Ph.D
Manager, Innovation
Before joining NHIC, Ee Lim was a Biodesign Fellow with Singapore-Stanford Biodesign Program established between the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the Economic Development Board (EDB), and Stanford University. Under this role, he engaged closely with healthcare professionals in Asia and United States to identify unmet clinical needs and developed a solution towards a commercially viable model. During that period, he was concurrently mentoring aspiring medical technology innovators from Singapore and regional countries in the Biodesign Innovation process. Prior to this, Ee Lim was a Scientist at A*STAR. Under this role, he worked with national and overseas stakeholders to develop medical device solution using semiconductor processes.
Ee Lim holds a Ph.D. from the Michigan Technological University, USA and a recipient of Singapore-Stanford Biodesign Fellowship. He has also completed the Lean Launchpad course by NUS Enterprise and trained in medical device design control.
Chuah Yon Jin, Ph. D
Manager, Innovation
Prior to joining NHIC, Yon Jin was a Research Fellow in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore where he oversaw multiple cross-functional research projects in the field of musculoskeletal regeneration. His research journey dates back to his undergraduate days in 2007 where he worked on a biomedical device to reverse intervertebral disc regeneration and cell processing methodologies in musculoskeletal tissue regeneration. Since then, Yon Jin has been actively working with clinicians and scientists and utilized cutting-edge technologies to address various clinical needs.
Yon Jin holds a Ph.D from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) who specialized in biomaterials engineering, cell processing and tissue engineering, and has completed biomedical courses such as Singapore Stanford Biodesign Innovation Course and The Medical Device School. He also serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for numerous leading scientific journals and a member of the Biomedical Engineering Society.
Zhang Hanzhong
Manager, Innovation
Before joining NHIC, Hanzhong was a Biodesign Fellow with Singapore-Stanford Biodesign Program established between the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the Economic Development Board (EDB), and Stanford University, where he received intensive trainings on the entire value chain of medtech innovation. During his fellowship, Hanzhong immersed himself into the clinical practices in hospitals in Asia and United States, worked closely with healthcare professionals to identify clinical needs, develop novel solutions and analyse business strategies beyond technologies. Prior to his SSB fellowship, Hanzhong has worked in Singapore healthcare and medtech industries, taking charge to evaluate and apply novel technologies in clinical settings, as well as to develop technical solutions and lead projects for medical device enhancement and maintenance.
Hanzhong holds an MSc degree in Biomedical Engineering and a BEng degree in Electrical Engineering. He serves as an advisor in the Biomedical Engineering Society (Singapore), and a collaborator of the International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) Clinical Engineering Division.
Enterprise Team
Yeow Siang Lin, Ph.D
Head, Enterprise
Before joining NHIC, Siang Lin was a Project Manager with Singapore General Hospital where he was responsible for forming partnerships with start-ups, SME and healthcare institution for the development of robotic-assisted ultrasound system. Prior to this, Siang Lin spent close to 5 years at National University of Singapore with the Medical Engineering Research & Commercialisation Initiative (M.E.R.C.I) team, overseeing multi-institutional collaborations on medical device development in the area of colonoscopy, endovascular, nephrology, organ transplant, underactive bladder, and musculoskeletal maintenance. He is also co-inventor of two medical devices that eventually led to 2 spin-off companies.
Siang Lin holds a Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore in Biomedical Engineering and has completed entrepreneurial programmes such as NUS-IEL LaunchPad, Singapore-Stanford Biodesign Innovation Class, and SMART-INSEAD Sci-Tech Entrepreneurship Boot Camp.
Esther Lee, Ph.D
Senior Manager, Enterprise
Prior to joining NHIC, Esther was in SingHealth (SHHQ) focusing on ground up innovation which entails nurturing handshakes to create conditions and processes for innovation. She led a team to facilitate partnerships thru co-developing innovation with start-ups, SMEs (funded by Enterprise Singapore) and Institutes of Higher Learning, making such partnerships accessible to innovators. This also included developing frameworks and enablers to facilitate implementation and adoption of co-developed innovation. Prior to this, Esther had the opportunity to manage a local SME, manufacturing livestock feed additives, with a distribution network overseas. This also presented an opportunity for Esther to develop business analytical, operational experience in ISO certification, distributor networks and import/export licensing. Esther has gleaned valuable experience in tech transfer at NUS Industry Liaison Office, managing an intellectual property portfolio in biochemistry, bioengineering as well as contract negotiations covering material transfer, collaborations and licensing.
Esther has a PhD. From the National University of Singapore and also completed the Lean Launchpad course by NUS Enterprise.
Smitha Velayil Sunildeep
Manager, Enterprise
Smitha started her career as a clinical research coordinator before moving onto pursue business development and strategy roles at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE). Over the course of last 9 years, she was involved in establishing formalized partnerships with local ministries, agencies, industry, clinical community and international players. She facilitated the establishment of the Singapore National Biofilm Consortium (SNBC) and also actively participated in the commercialization activities associated with biofilm and microbiome technologies. She also held the position of the lead administrator of a company limited by guarantee (CLG) associated with genomics. In addition, she drove the successful implementation and management of a collaborative grant scheme that brought together multi-disciplinary teams across the university in the area of biomedical, health and life sciences domain that led to several fold returns through follow up external grants.
Smitha holds a dual Masters degree (MSc-MBA) in Biotechnology and Business Administration from La Trobe University, Melbourne, and a Bachelors degree (Honours) in Biological Sciences from Nanyang Technological University (NTU). She also completed the Lean Launchpad course by NTUitive Pte. Ltd. as part of a team from the Big Data Analytics group hosted at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and the project has since been incorporated as a neurotechnology startup company. Additionally, she earned a nomination for NTU’s premier leadership excellence and advancement program LEAD1 that she successfully completed in 2022..
Administrative Team
Shermaine Kwan
Manager, Grants and Administration
Having graduated from RMIT University with a Bachelor in Business Administration, Shermaine has had opportunities that allowed her to perform various roles such as accounting, finance, research administrative and human resource with private organisations, healthcare and education sectors.
Prior to joining NHIC, Shermaine worked as research grant administrative roles in Singhealth and National University Health System. (NUHS). She worked closely with researchers and principal investigators by assisting them to secure and manage their grant fundings.
Ng San San
Assistant Manager, Administration
Having been trained financially with a Diploma from Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, San San has always been grateful for the opportunities she had, to have experienced working systems spanning across various spaces, including healthcare, education, banking and the public sector. They opened her eyes to diversified ways of working and ideation processes, leading her to place passion, efficiency and service quality as her highest life goals, both professionally and personally.
Prior to NHIC, San San enjoyed all things administrative and operational during her stints at Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and United Overseas Bank (UOB). During which, planning VIP visits and co-ordinating events never failed to get her adrenaline pumping.
Outside work, you will find her eagerly tasking herself with home improvement projects and working out ways to increase efficiency of cleaning back home.
