The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Johnson & Johnson Vision, a global leader in eye health and part of Johnson & Johnson MedTech to jointly establish an Eye Health Digital Innovation Consortium. Hosted at A*STAR’s Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), the consortium focuses on advancing eye health research in the region.

A joint investment of SGD 15 million from both organisations will be channelled into the consortium over the course of three years.

As the first of its kind in APAC, the consortium will forge strategic public-private partnerships in the eye health space between eye care professionals (ECPs), academia, and the industry, to bring about innovations that will address pressing eye health needs.

Through this consortium, stakeholders will be able to jointly identify and prioritise these needs, to accelerate research and innovation outcomes in the field.

For a start, the consortium will see the creation of three new projects:

1. MyoA*Bank: A digital data consent management platform that consolidates anonymised data for studies in eye health

2. Behaviourally-informed messages to improve eye health behaviours, such as going for comprehensive eye health check-ups, a necessary standard of care which is not part of current norms

3. E-referral and e-triaging for step-up and step-down care in the community