Johnson & Johnson Vision to pioneer integrated eye health ecosystem in Singapore

•  The new integrated eye health ecosystem will usher in a new standard of eye care, by improving access, capacity, and hyper-personalisation of patient care
  
  
• Three-year roadmap of initiatives will establish Singapore as the regional hub for eye health innovation
  
  
• In line with Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative, the ecosystem is expected to create up to 40 leadership positions locally, covering areas across data and digitalisation 
  

Johnson & Johnson Vision, a global leader in eye health and part of the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies, is pioneering an integrated eye health ecosystem to meet Singaporeans’ eye health needs at every life stage, with the support of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) for talent development.

Despite sight being the most precious of our five senses, and accounting for 80 per cent of what we learn and remember¹, eye health remains severely underrepresented in Singaporeans’ healthcare priorities. This is despite Singaporeans being extremely vulnerable to eye diseases and disorders at every life stage.

The cost from a physical and financial perspective in Singapore is almost unparalleled. Myopia affects one in two children by the age of 12, and 83 per cent will be myopic at the age of 18². Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of vision loss in adults, and risk of blindness increases fifteen-fold for those aged 50 to 80 and above³. The economic burden across all eye diseases is expected to increase significantly by 2040⁴.

In response, Johnson & Johnson Vision will establish a consumer-centric, experiential eye health ecosystem that connects key stakeholders in the eye health journey – patients or consumers, caregivers, eye care professionals, and other industry stakeholders – seamlessly. The ecosystem will be built to meet these objectives:

1. Support eye care professionals by increasing their capacity to provide eye health and care services, by combining in-depth industry expertise with innovative digital capabilities; 
2. Increase Singaporeans’ access to eye health and care; and 
3. Improve knowledge of eye health and vision needs among the public, through hyper-personalisation of patient care.

Eye Health Jobs of the Future
With a focus on data and digitalisation, this project is intended to foster up to 40 local next-generation talent in leadership positions with the support of EDB. These talents will drive key initiatives across 26 different professions, covering areas such as cybersecurity, user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design, AI development, and blockchain.

Changing the Trajectory of Eye Health
The project, which will see Johnson & Johnson Vision projected to invest in excess of SGD 10 million over three years, will also complement its existing activities to improve access, capacity, and hyper-personalisation in the delivery of eye care in Singapore. These include:

• Research partnership with Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) and Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI): Established in 2018, the SGD 36 million collaboration with SNEC and SERI aims to improve access to eye care specifically for myopia, through research on how the condition develops, how it progresses, and how it may be intercepted. 
  
  
• AI Singapore (AISG) partnership: With the objective of delivering hyper-personalised eye care, the partnership with AISG, under its flagship 100 Experiments Programme (100E), investigates the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve consumer experiences, and leverage data for real-time insights to better support patient needs in eye health. 
  
  
• Johnson & Johnson Vision’s consumer-centric mobile platform: Through its MyACUVUE mobile platform, Johnson & Johnson Vision has been consistently building and deepening its digital capabilities to better serve myopia patients and eye care professionals, by improving knowledge and access of eye health and vision correction among consumers. This includes greater personalisation of products, expanding existing home delivery offerings into telemedicine, and more. 

By deepening existing initiatives and introducing new projects driven by data and digitalisation, the ecosystem will be a comprehensive and holistic approach to delivering next generation eye care in Singapore, and set the benchmark for the rest of the region.

¹ Journal of Behavioral Optometry. Children’s Vision Care in the 21st Century & Its Impact on Education, Literacy, Social Issues & the Workplace: A Call to Action. Accessed August 10, 2018. 

² Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC). Singapore's Eye Health. 

³ Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC). Singapore's Eye Health. 

⁴ Ansah, John & Koh, Victoria & De Korne, Dirk & Bayer, Steffen & Pan, Chong & Jayabaskar, Thiyagarajan & Matchar, David & Lamoureux, Ecosse & Quek, Desmond. (2018). Projection of Eye Disease Burden in Singapore. Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore. 47. 13-28.

⁵ World Health Organization (WHO). World Report on Vision.  

⁶ Holden BA et al. Global Prevalence of Myopia and High Myopia and Temporal Trends from 2000 through 2050. Ophthalmology 2016;123:5:1036-42