Career Prospect

Growing investments in the Biomedical Sciences and Healthcare Sector
The Biomedical Engineering (BME) industry in Singapore is rapidly growing, and is further accelerated by the Singapore Government. Billions of dollars are being pumped in to support EDB's declared intention to make the Life Sciences as the fourth economic engine for the Singapore Industry. In recent investment drives, after having promoted the pure life sciences investments for some years, EDB is now concentrating on attracting investments in the medical technology segment i.e. medical devices design, development and manufacturing.
Biomedical Sciences and Healthcare Sector

A*star is equally aggressive in stimulating the development of expertise in the life sciences area, including that of biomedical engineering. Tapping on large pool of research money of several billion dollars, numerous research institutes have been set up to perform directed research. Collectively, the large sums of research money is tanslating into numerous job opportunites for research staff and technical support staff. Being trained in BME opens the doors to the jobs in these exciting and promising research areas.
Research Resources - A comprehensive overview of research infrastructure and resources in Singapore

Regionalisation of the Biomedical Engineering Business
In the commercial sector, the traditional equipment vendors are transforming themselves as competition goes regional. From supplying equipment to local hospitals and research labs, vendors are strengthening their marketing reach to the region. And the market for the region in medical/healthcare equipment is huge! India alone has more than 10,000 hospitals, and China more than 67,000 hospitals!

Accelerating Investments in the Biomedical Sciences and Medical Technology Manufacturing
Industry overview:
Since the year 2000, when the biomedical sciences initiative was launched, manufacturing output has expanded fourfold from S$6.3 billion to S$24 billion in 2007 at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 21%. Value-Added also increased by more than threefold from S$3.8 billion in 2000 to exceed S$13 billion in 2007. Employment doubled from 5,880 to more than 11,500 over the same period. (Source: Biomed-Singapore.com Article Apr 2007)
Output for 2005 is S$18 billion. Pharmaceuticals accounted for 88% while Medical Technology accounted for 62% of the 10,200 jobs. (Source: EDB Biomedical Sciences Briefing Jan 2006)

Strong Grounding for Diversification
In addition, the grounding in BME does not limit the graduate to work in just the pure biomedical engineering segment. With an engineering background, the graduate can readily adapt to the electronics and manufacturing sectors, or even go into the biomedical sciences with further training. A few BME graduates will eventually end up as medical doctor, if statistics of other countries were to apply in Singapore.

Career Switch
What if along the way, you feel that pure biomedical engineering (BME) is not what you want to do all your life? No problem. As the pace of innovation, commercialisation and competition continues accelearates, the demand for people with multidisciplinary skills and knowledge will more widely felt. Some may graduates may want to upgrade themselves with a law degree, immediately gaining an edge over other lawyers when it comes to corporate, litigation and intellectual property matters involving biomedical engineering. Similarly a business degree with a BME background helps one to cope better with businesses involving BME. And the combination possibilities go on...

Choose BME if you have an inclination for engineering and the biosciences. It will open up interesting career opportunities, including technopreneurships - which is starting up technology-based companies. Important assistances may be obtained from SPRING Singapore under their programs for Start-Ups!

Extracts from selected Articles:

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Extract from Channel News Asia: 22 May 2008 SINGAPORE :

  • The Economic Development Board (EDB) is targeting to double medical technology (MedTech) manufacturing output from S$2.6 billion to S$5 billion by 2015.
  • Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan said Singapore aims to be a centre for medical technology innovation in Asia. The MedTech sector is growing rapidly in Singapore, registering growth of 18 percent in manufacturing output last year. Mr Lee said: "Firstly, we will continue to invest in human capital and enhance physical infrastructure. ITE (Institute of Technical Education) and EDB are also working closely with key MedTech companies in Singapore, such as Edwards, to ensure that the curriculum evolves along with their needs in the future. Secondly, we want to develop Singapore as a centre for Medical Technology innovation in Asia."
  • MedTech firms can tap into the S$50 million Technology Commercialisation Scheme recently announced by SPRING Singapore to help companies convert their ideas into promising businesses.

Extract from page 15 "Engineering a successful career in Biomdical Sciences" (A publication of EDB)

  • "Engineers are particularly crucial in the medical technology sector. By combining biology, medicine and engineering, biomedical engineers help to develop devices and procedures that solve medical and health-related problems. Many conduct research, side-by-side biologists, chemists, and medical scientists, to develop and evaluate systems or products, such as artificial organs, prostheses, instrumentation, medical information systems, and health management systems.
    So how does a “regular” engineer fit into the biomedical sciences industry? Typically, engineers working in this sector have a sound background in a basic engineering discipline, such as chemical, electrical or material science, as well as more specialised biomedical sciences related specialties. Depending on their job function, these engineers have specialisations in areas such as biomaterials,biomechanics, medical imaging, rehabilitation engineering, and orthopaedic engineering. Some tertiary institutes offer these specialisations at the undergraduate level, usually towards the end of graduation. However, you may also choose to go into these areas at the post-graduate level, especially if you wish to embark on a career in R&D and develop the next generation of life-saving technologies."