Singapore – The Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Welfare Foundation (“MSIWF” and the “Foundation”) announced the award of four grants for innovative solutions focusing on senior citizen welfare and traffic safety at the 11^th MSIWF Research Grant Awards 2017 ceremony held at Hotel Michael, Sentosa, Singapore.

The research grants, amounting to SGD38,948 awarded to four researchers in Singapore, focus on impactful research that could support the diagnosis of elderly men with lower urinary tract symptoms; the development of a non-intrusive fall detection monitoring system for the elderly; the adoption of appropriate child car restraints; and improving the elderly’s adherence to their treatment regimen. 

In addition to the award of these grants, the Foundation has also made a commitment to donate 200 smart walking stick holders known as Qanemates to the elderly in Singapore and Japan. Designed by two young Singaporean inventors, Seng Ian Hao (aged 14) and Seng Ing Le (aged 12), Qanemate has won numerous national and international innovation awards, including the most recent 2017 Ageing Asia Innovation of the Year Award and the Singapore LTA Engineering Challenge Award.

Following a rigorous selection process, the 2017 winners in Singapore are:

• Dr Neo Shu Hui, Resident at Singapore General Hospital, for her research in determining the effectiveness of incorporating visual analogue uroflowmetry score (VAUS) in primary care physicians’ evaluation process of elderly men with lower urinary tract symptoms to achieve a cost effective, easily administered and non-invasive tool that could potentially reduce unnecessary referrals to specialists;

• Dr Chong Shu-Ling, Staff Physician, Department of Emergency Medicine, at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, for her research on understanding parental knowledge and beliefs on the use (or the lack of use) of child car restraints, in order to create the right approach when communicating to parents on child car safety;

• Professor Tan Kok Kiong at National University of Singapore, for the development of a wearable, non-intrusive, and location-based fall detection monitoring system for the elderly. The wearable device utilises an accelerometer and an additional level of sound-based detection to enhance the accuracy of fall detection;

• Ms Lim Zhiying, Senior Medical Social Worker at Singapore General Hospital, for her research to better understand elderly patients’ perspectives of their illnesses and adherence (or non-adherence) to their treatment regimens, particularly those with multiple chronic illnesses and differing physical dependency who require multiple medications daily.