In collaboration with ACCESS Health International and NUS Enterprise
There is a need for creative approaches to improve health and quality of life for the elderly, in both developed and developing countries. We aim to understand how the elderly today differ in lifestyle and preferences compared to previous generations and to find ways to accommodate these new needs. We first developed Modern Ageing to attract more minds and resources to the task of developing and implementing new solutions to cope with the demographic challenge.
Modern Ageing is an ACCESS Health programme that focuses on helping entrepreneurs create businesses to serve the needs of elders and their caregivers. Modern Ageing programme was conceived and first implemented in Sweden. Partnered with NUS Enterprise, Duke-NUS Centre for Ageing Research and Education, and ESSEC Business School, ACCESS Health will pilot Modern Ageing Singapore in 2015. The four-month programme features a blended curriculum that consists of online presentations, hosted on the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Learning platform, and in-person group sessions and mentoring sessions. Participants will learn about the specific challenges of ageing and how to create a business for the elder care market.
We aim to recruit twenty teams of entrepreneurs, with each team consisting of an individual or two to three people from universities, polytechnics, and regional health clusters. Each team will develop a business plan to secure funding to start their company. Teams will compete for seed funding by pitching their business plans to a panel of judges at the final event. In addition to those of the winning teams, other promising businesses may be streamed into the NUS Enterprise incubator or secure funding from investors present at the event.
A successful pilot of Modern Ageing can grow into a larger program for Singapore and potentially the region. Valuable course material will enhance future iterations of the programme and will be available on a Modern Ageing website.