“Rapid product development times, outstanding engineering resources, and key geographic location, that’s why Welch Allyn chose to open its research and product development centre in Singapore,” said Mr. Peter Galen, managing director of the new Welch Allyn Emerging Countries Research and Product Development Centre. The first of its kind in this region for Welch Allyn, this facility allows the company to utilize and expand on its core technologies to develop medical products that are specific to needs of frontline caregivers in Asia and other emerging markets throughout the world. The seven-member Singapore R&D team will concentrate on developing disruptive technologies in the healthcare industry, with a particular focus on patient monitoring equipment. Through Welch Allyn’s established engineering Centres of Excellence, this team will work closely with their U.S. counterparts on an aggressive six-month development time frame. This is significantly faster than the industry norm where time-to-market averages 1½ - 2 years. The Singapore R&D team expects to complete roughly 1 - 2 projects per year, which could potentially include projects with local universities, in the area of diagnostics.
