SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 11 December 2025 – Imagine a world the place ultrasound imaging is not confined to hospitals; sufferers with persistent circumstances, resembling hypertension and coronary heart failure, might be monitored repeatedly in actual time at dwelling or on the transfer, giving healthcare practitioners ongoing scientific insights as a substitute of the occasional snapshots – a scan right here and a check-up there. This shift from reactive, hospital-based care to preventative, group and home-based care might allow earlier detection and well timed intervention, and actually personalised care.
Bringing this imaginative and prescient to actuality, the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) analysis enterprise in Singapore, has launched a brand new collaborative analysis venture – Wearable Imaging for Transforming Elderly Care (WITEC).
WITEC marks a pioneering effort in wearable expertise, medical imaging, analysis and supplies science. It is Singapore’s first centre devoted to foundational analysis and improvement of the world’s first wearable ultrasound imaging system able to 48-hour intermittent cardiovascular imaging for steady and real-time monitoring and prognosis of persistent circumstances resembling hypertension and coronary heart failure.
This multi-million greenback, multi-year initiative, supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore beneath its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme, brings collectively high researchers and experience from MIT, Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) and the National University of Singapore (NUS). Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) is WITEC’s scientific collaborator and can conduct affected person trials to validate long-term coronary heart imaging for persistent heart problems administration.
“Addressing society’s most pressing challenges requires innovative, interdisciplinary thinking. Building on SMART’s long legacy in Singapore as a hub for research and innovation, WITEC will harness interdisciplinary expertise – from MIT and leading institutions in Singapore – to advance transformative research that creates real-world impact and benefits Singapore, the US and societies all over. This is the kind of collaborative research that not only pushes the boundaries of knowledge, but also redefines what is possible for the future of healthcare,” mentioned Bruce Tidor, Chief Executive Officer and Director (Interim), SMART.
Industry-leading precision tools and capabilities
To assist this work, WITEC’s laboratory is supplied with superior instruments, together with Southeast Asia’s first Nanoscribe Quantum X sub-micrometre 3D printer and the most recent Verasonics Vantage NXT 256 ultrasonic imaging system, which is the primary unit of its type in Singapore.
Unlike typical 3D printers that function at millimetre or micrometre scales, WITEC’s 3D printer can obtain sub‑micrometre decision, permitting parts to be fabricated on the degree of single cells or tissue buildings. With this functionality, WITEC researchers can prototype bioadhesive supplies and machine interfaces with unprecedented accuracy — important to making certain pores and skin‑secure adhesion and secure, lengthy‑time period imaging high quality.
Complementing that is the most recent Verasonics ultrasonic imaging system. Equipped with a brand new transducer adaptor and supporting a considerably bigger variety of probe management channels than present programs, it offers researchers the liberty to check extremely customised imaging strategies. This permits extra complicated beamforming, increased‑decision picture seize, and integration with AI‑based mostly diagnostic fashions — opening the door to lengthy‑period, actual‑time cardiovascular imaging not attainable with customary hospital tools.
Together, these applied sciences permit WITEC to speed up the design, prototyping and testing of its wearable ultrasound imaging system, and to display imaging high quality on phantoms and wholesome topics.
Transforming persistent illness care by way of wearable innovation
Chronic ailments are rising quickly in Singapore and globally, particularly among the many ageing inhabitants and people with a number of long-term circumstances. This pattern highlights the pressing want for efficient home-based care and easy-to-use monitoring instruments that transcend primary wellness monitoring.
Current client wearables, resembling smartwatches and health bands, provide restricted physiological information like coronary heart fee or step depend. While helpful for basic well being, they lack the depth wanted to assist persistent illness administration. Traditional ultrasound programs, although clinically highly effective, are cumbersome, operator-dependent, can solely be deployed episodically throughout the hospitals, and are restricted to snapshots in time — making them unsuitable for long-term, on a regular basis use.
WITEC goals to bridge this hole with its wearable ultrasound imaging system that makes use of bioadhesive expertise to allow up to 48 hours of uninterrupted imaging. Combined with AI-enhanced diagnostics, the innovation is geared toward supporting early detection, home-based pre-diagnosis and steady monitoring of persistent ailments.
Beyond enhancing affected person outcomes, this innovation might assist ease labour shortages by releasing up ultrasound operators, nurses and medical doctors to give attention to extra complicated care, whereas lowering demand for hospital beds and assets. By shifting monitoring to houses and communities, WITEC’s expertise will allow affected person self-management and well timed intervention, probably decreasing healthcare prices and assuaging the rising monetary and manpower pressures of an ageing inhabitants.
Driving innovation by way of interdisciplinary collaboration
WITEC is led by the next Co-Lead Principal Investigators:
- Prof Xuanhe Zhao, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT
- Prof Joseph Sung, Senior Vice President (Health & Life Sciences), NTU Singapore, and Dean, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine)
- Prof Cher Heng Tan, Assistant Dean, Clinical Research, LKCMedicine
- Prof Chwee Teck Lim, NUS Society Professor of Biomedical Engineering, NUS, and Director, Institute for Health Innovation and Technology, NUS
- Prof Xiaodong Chen, Distinguished University Professor, School of Materials Science & Engineering, NTU
“We’re extremely proud to bring together an exceptional team of researchers from Singapore and the US to pioneer core technologies that will make wearable ultrasound imaging a reality. This endeavour combines deep expertise in materials science, data science, AI diagnostics, biomedical engineering and clinical medicine. Our phased approach will accelerate translation into a fully wearable platform that reshapes how chronic diseases are monitored, diagnosed and managed,” mentioned Prof Xuanhe Zhao, Co-Lead Principal Investigator, WITEC.
Research roadmap with broad impression throughout healthcare, science, business and financial system
Bringing collectively main specialists throughout interdisciplinary fields, WITEC will advance foundational work in gentle supplies, transducers, microelectronics, information science and AI diagnostics, scientific medication and biomedical engineering. As a deep tech R&D, its breakthroughs could have the potential to drive innovation in healthcare expertise and manufacturing, diagnostics, wearable ultrasonic imaging, metamaterials, and AI-powered well being analytics. WITEC’s work can be anticipated to speed up development in high-value jobs throughout analysis, engineering, scientific validation and healthcare providers, and appeal to strategic investments that foster biomedical innovation and business partnerships in Singapore, the US and past.
“Chronic diseases present significant challenges for patients, families, and healthcare systems, and with aging populations such as Singapore, those challenges will only grow without new solutions. Our research into a wearable ultrasound imaging system aims to transform daily care for those living with cardiovascular and other chronic conditions – providing clinicians with richer, continuous insights to guide treatment, while giving patients greater confidence and control over their own health. WITEC’s pioneering work marks an important step towards shifting care from episodic, hospital-based interventions to more proactive, everyday management in the community,” mentioned Prof Joseph Sung, Co‑Lead Principal Investigator, WITEC.
Led by Dr Violet Hoon, Senior Consultant at TTSH, the scientific trials are anticipated to begin in early 2026 to validate long-term coronary heart monitoring within the administration of persistent heart problems. Through improvements in bioadhesive couplants, nanostructured metamaterials and ultrasonic transducers, over the subsequent three years, WITEC goals to develop a cart-based bioadhesive ultrasound (BAUS) system able to steady, real-time monitoring and personalised prognosis of medical circumstances. In future phases, WITEC goals to develop a completely built-in moveable BAUS platform able to 48-hour intermittent imaging.
As MIT’s analysis enterprise in Singapore, SMART is dedicated to advancing breakthrough applied sciences that handle urgent international challenges. WITEC provides to SMART’s present analysis endeavours that foster a wealthy change of concepts by way of collaboration with main researchers and lecturers from the US, Singapore, and all over the world in key areas resembling antimicrobial resistance, cell remedy improvement, precision agriculture, AI and 3D-sensing applied sciences.
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For extra info, please go to http://sensible.mit.edu
