Software developer

Medical Engineering Research & Commercialisation Initiative (MERCI)

Innovative work is often initiated in the various publicly-funded research institutes however the universities’ academic nature and the drive towards commercialization poses different sets of priorities on researchers that can seem conflicting at times. We believe that researchers can be supported such that commercialization of their technology need not be hindered by their academic priorities. Furthermore, medical technology innovation in academia can be driven to greater commercial value by implementing regulatory and quality compliance as well as devising intellectual property and commercial strategy early on.

Since 2009, MERCI, a core facility of National University of Singapore (NUS) and National University Health Systems (NUHS), has been facilitating this process in a pilot focus on medical devices. MERCI emphasizes the importance of understanding what the clinicians need and in translating those needs into useful, manufacturable and commercially viable products that would make a difference to patients’ lives. MERCI has facilitated the close working relationship between the clinicians in the School of Medicine and researchers from other faculties and institutions, where it’s working principle is to involve clinical input in every step of the development process to ensure relevance and market acceptance. A critical learning point from the MERCI experience has been that the commercialisation process and the support needed must start from fairly upstream stages rather than to have an “outsider” team take over when the patent is filed/researcher believes technology is ready.

The path from concept to commercialization in the healthcare sector requires addressing critical activities, some unique to the field. The additional level of diligence in this sector is driven by patient safety and is reinforced by the regulatory system. MERCI utilizes grant funding available to the university to perform and document relevant-for-stage verification and validation testing of the innovation to US FDA and EU MMD and ISO 13485 requirements. This will ensure that the development has been performed to internationally-recognized standards and thus relevant to companies that will potential license the technology.

For more information, please refer to www.nus.edu.sg/merci