Advancing Care Through Innovation
Innovation is a key enabler of IHH’s ambition to lead and shape the future of healthcare. Beyond delivering value-based care and long-term growth, innovation enables us to respond decisively to prevalent challenges facing the healthcare industry, from rising demand to workforce constraints and to consistently pursue clinical excellence and quality, better outcomes and experiences for all patients.
We look to the future of what healthcare can look like and through investments, partnerships, and internal programs, aim to realize that vision. We accelerate the development and adoption of advanced healthcare solutions, building capabilities and partnerships that translate emerging technologies into practical, real-world impact in support of our Care. For Good. commitment.
Our Approach to Innovation
Our innovation strategy is anchored on three core pillars: investments, partnerships and capability building.
Through these pillars, we focus on:
This structured approach ensures that innovation remains practical, patient-centric and aligned with long-term value creation across the Group.
Investments
IHH Healthcare’s Innovation Fund is a strategic growth engine, enabling us to capitalise on emerging healthcare megatrends such as ‘New Access’, ‘New Data’ and ‘New Alliances’. New Access reflects the shift toward more convenient and technology-enabled healthcare delivery, where care increasingly reaches patients through digital platforms, remote services and care-at-home models. New Data highlights the growing role of data, AI and connected technologies in empowering patients and clinicians with real-time insights, enabling more personalised, predictive and precision-based medicine. Meanwhile, New Alliances points to the rise of ecosystem partnerships across healthcare providers, technology companies and communities to deliver more integrated, collaborative models of care. Together, these trends are accelerating the adoption of advanced technologies and new care models, while fostering partnerships that will shape the future of healthcare. Through the fund, we aim to build long-term collaborations with novel and game-changing ventures, reinforcing IHH’s position as a leader in next-generation healthcare innovation.
By investing in companies aligned with our strategic priorities, we gain early access to breakthrough technologies and intelligence, shaping product roadmaps, enabling collaborations in research and development and strengthening our ability to deliver next-generation healthcare.
Strengthening Excellence in Oncology
We have invested in Leo Cancer Care and TibaRay, expanding these partnerships to bring next-generation radiation treatment, such as upright and compact proton therapy and ultra-fast radiotherapy to patients across IHH markets. These solutions improve patient comfort, treatment effectiveness, and accessibility while challenging traditional infrastructure constraints.
We have also invested in Lucence to strengthen precision oncology diagnostics and have rolled out its liquid biopsy tests across our hospital network in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, enabling earlier cancer detection and more accurate and targeted therapy selection for patients.
Developing New Frontiers for Diagnosis and Disease Management
Our investment in Belun Technology advances IHH’s move into right-sizing care and enabling home based diagnostics and AI-enabled chronic disease management in key markets including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Türkiye. By collaborating with Belun which has an FDA-cleared, medical-grade home sleep test, patients with sleep disorders can now be diagnosed and followed up with in the comfort of their homes.
Investing in Innovative Startups
As a strategic investor, IHH focuses on supporting and nurturing early-stage companies in digital health and technology-enabled healthcare services. Our aim is to collaborate with these budding startups, forming a strong alliance based on shared vision and growth plans. By doing so, we strive to enhance and create value across our healthcare eco-system.
Lucence
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Doctor Anywhere
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Us2.AI
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Intellect
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Belun Technology
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Leo Cancer Care
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Tibaray
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IHH leverages its scale and footprint to strengthen the innovation ecosystems in the markets we are in. Through strategic collaborations with start-ups, technology companies, and academic institutions, IHH broadens access to emerging capabilities and expertise. We co-develop and pilot cutting edge solutions in real clinical environments, ensuring that new technologies are tested, refined and scaled in ways that directly improve patient care, and operational efficiency. By deepening these innovation partnerships across the healthcare value chain, we accelerate the translation of ideas into impactful, real world outcomes for the patients and communities we serve.
IHH Global Incubator | Catalyst Programme
Launched in 2025, the Global Incubator | Catalyst Programme engages early-stage healthcare startups and entrepreneurs developing bold, breakthrough ideas and solutions to advance healthcare delivery. Through access to IHH hospitals and mentorship across our markets, the program helps start-ups refine their ideas, pilot and validate solutions, and scale their products across healthcare systems.
The programme sources and evaluates start-ups globally, selecting solutions with strong potential for integration into existing healthcare workflows. We focus on solutions that address clinical and operational challenges faced by healthcare providers, with the aim of enhancing patient experience, treatment access and value-based care. Selected participants receive coaching, access to clinical environments and structured pathways for collaboration with IHH teams.
The programme also enables the responsible evaluation and potential adoption of external innovations contributing to the continued development of our broader innovation ecosystem.
AI to Drive Preventive Care and Translational Research
Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong has partnered with biotech start-up GUTolution to deliver personalised gut health interventions through AI-driven microbiome testing, expanding its capabilities in preventive and wellness-focused care.
The hospital’s AI Lab supports the structured translation of research into clinical applications. In collaboration with institutes of higher learning and health-tech start-ups, the Lab evaluates and pilots solutions such as smart clinic systems, digital triaging, diagnostic innovations and remote monitoring to enhance patient outcomes and operational efficiency.
IHH Igniting Innovation in Healthcare Conference
First held in 2023, our annual Innovation flagship event brings together global technology and healthcare leaders, clinicians, start-ups, investors and ecosystem partners to explore and find opportunities to collaborate on the challenges and opportunities in healthcare today, from access to cost to outcomes.
The conference first took place in Singapore, followed by Mumbai in 2024. The 2025 edition in Hong Kong brought together over 150 participants and marked the launch of the IHH Global Incubator | Catalyst Programme, reinforcing IHH’s commitment to building robust healthcare ecosystems and collaboration across the healthcare value chain.
Enhancing Diagnostics with Harrison.AI
We have collaborated with Australian health-tech firm Harrison.AI to enhance the efficiency and safety of our imaging operations. The firm’s solution taps on AI as a “second pair of eyes” to help radiologists in interpreting scans, allowing our clinicians to improve efficiency, diagnostic accuracy and overall reporting performance. The solution has been deployed across several of IHH markets including Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.
Creating Strategic Partnerships
We are committed to continuous improvement and pushing the limits of patient excellence in healthcare. Our pursuit of progress drives us to seek out partnerships with companies that share our passion and commitment. By joining forces with these like-minded organisations, we aspire to provide superior and more holistic healthcare to those we serve.
Capability Building
At IHH, we focus on building internal capabilities by fostering a culture of innovation across the group. This includes empowering clinicians, nurses, operators, and business unit teams to challenge the status quo, identify opportunties within their day-to-day practice, and be empowered to turn their ideas into reality. Through structured programmes, funding support and real-world pilots, internal teams are enabled to translate grassroot ideas into implementable solutions. These initiatives also support continuous learning and exposure to emerging technologies, strengthening innovation capabilities across the organisation and encouraging the adoption of solutions that deliver measurable clinical and operational impact.
IHH Research Grant and Innovation Sandbox
Launched in 2025, our Research Grant and Innovation Sandbox programme is a S$5 million, multi-year group initiative to strengthen research capability and advance innovation. This supports our ambition to become a global leader in healthcare and clinical thought leadership.
The programme comprises two complementary tracks: a Research Grant track supporting clinician-led research, and an Innovation Sandbox track enabling the piloting of groundup ideas within real-world clinical settings. Across both tracks, the programme has attracted strong interest across the IHH network, resulting in a growing portfolio of research and innovation initiatives aligned to priority therapeutic areas and care needs..
Collectively, these initiatives strengthen IHH’s research and innovation pipeline, foster crossmarket collaboration and support improvements in patient outcomes, patient experience and care delivery.
Identifying Patients at Risk of Sleep Apnoea
Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is often underdiagnosed and testing can be inconvenient and costly.
Taking a proactive approach to improving patients’ well-being, Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong is piloting electronic medical record (EMR)-based Large Language Model (LLM) screening to identify at-risk patients and offer in-home sleep testing using the Belun Ring (a medical-grade wearable device) with telecare follow-up. The approach enables earlier identification and treatment of OSA, improves access to affordable in-home sleep testing, and has potential to scale LLM-driven risk screening and telecare to other chronic diseases.
Addressing Mental Health in Gastroenterology Care
Disorders of the gut-brain interaction are common and can significantly affect healthcare utilisation and quality of life. Depression and anxiety are frequently associated with these conditions and may influence patient outcomes. This study at IHH Malaysia evaluates the prevalence of anxiety and depression among patients attending gastroenterology clinics. Findings may inform more integrated care approaches and support evaluation of incorporating psychological interventions into routine practice.
Precision Diagnostics for Breast Cancer
Traditional breast cancer grading and BRCA testing can be subjective, costly, and time-consuming.
At IHH Labs in Malaysia, AI is being applied to analyse hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained tissue slides to automate Nottingham Histologic Grade (a critical system used to assess breast cancer aggressiveness) and explore image-based prediction of BRCA1/2 mutation status. The solution aims to improve diagnostic consistency, speed up diagnostic turnaround, reduce reliance on expensive genetic testing, and support scalable precision oncology workflows.
Enhancing Precision Surveillance in Liver Cancer
At Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong, clinicians are evaluating new approaches to improve monitoring of hepatocellular carcinoma, where current surveillance relies primarily on imaging and alpha-fetoprotein testing. This prospective clinical registry study evaluates a blood-based DNA methylation approach to support early detection and monitor tumour recurrence following surgical or non-invasive treatment. Findings may strengthen surveillance strategies and support more timely clinical decisionmaking in liver cancer care.
Building a Strong Innovation Culture
IHH recognises the importance of internal innovation and promotes a culture of innovation through programmes, webinars, and conferences. By encouraging employees to think creatively and providing them with support, IHH aims to drive positive change within the organisation to achieve our Care. For Good. aspirations.
