Despite contact lenses and atropine eye drops being one of the most effective ways to slow myopia progression in children, 80 per cent of parents still choose glasses—a decision often driven by fear, difficulty and hygiene concerns. EyeWonder™, an innovative new tool kit developed by Team ReVision during their Duke-NUS Health Innovator Programme fellowship, aims to change that.

Team ReVision marks the end of the first phase of their fellowship with a group photo. Clinical fellow Mr Charles Yau, who also received the 2025 Outstanding Fellow Award, said: “It has been a tremendously valuable learning experience. The programme created a nurturing environment to apply our distinct experiences in design-thinking, innovative business practices and clinical knowledge to solve real-world challenges in a way that would not have been possible alone. I’m really grateful for this journey!”

Putting their prototype to the test with parents, children and optometrists, the team found that children were more willing to try lenses, parents were happy to recommend the device to others, and correctly placing a lens in the eye with EyeWonder^TM took less than 20 seconds. For optometrists, EyeWonder^TM helps to shorten consultations during which they teach contact lens use and maintenance to their customers.

Speaking during the final pitch on 19 March, Mr Charles Yau, the clinical fellow from Team ReVision and a Duke-NUS medical student, said: “We’re standing on top of a goldmine and we are offering them (lens manufacturers) a shovel.”

Their innovative solution wowed the panel of judges during the Dazzle Day pitch session and won them the $50,000 to further develop their innovation.

“We are super excited to move this project forward, because we really have come a long way,” said Team ReVision’s engineering fellow, Ms Lakshmi Sujeesh, a biomedical engineering student from NUS. “Hopefully with this, we can collect additional data to finalise the patent and work with major lens manufacturers.”

The team emerged victorious from the shark-tank-style like pitch session that marked the end of their Duke-NUS Health Innovator Programme journey. During the programme, fellows from three disciplines—medicine, engineering and business—are paired with a clinical mentor and industry partner as they discover a clinical need, design a solution, develop prototypes and dazzle with their final proposals. Part of the experience includes a week-long immersion at Duke-NUS’ parent university, Duke, in North Carolina.

The third cohort of Health Innovator fellows comprised 15 students, split into five teams. After the pitching session on Dazzle Day, the panel of five judges evaluated the teams’ innovations based on a number of criteria including clinical need, market potential and feasibility.

Associate Professor Chris Laing, Vice-Dean for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Duke-NUS, speaking on behalf of the judges, noted that they agreed that the projects were exemplary, and the teams well prepared with clear plans for how to take their projects beyond the fellowship. But, at the end of Dazzle Day, only one team could walk away with the prize.

Speaking after the proceedings, Assoc Prof Laing elaborated on what made Team ReVision’s project stand out to the judges: “Team ReVision did a really great job of telling story of the problem they were addressing. It was a really compelling story to why their solution is needed.”

While Team ReVision walked away with the top prize, Team Conexus claimed with the inaugural audience award for most popular team, presented to them by Guest-of-Honour, NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye.

The colour-coordinated trio, comprising engineering fellow Ms Chan Syn-I, clinical fellow Mr Jasper Chua from Duke-NUS and business fellow Ms Qiao Jin, developed a flexible grasper, E-Grasper^TM, that can be attached to commercial endoscopes to provide surgeons with better larger tools to perform complex procedures such as weight-loss surgery through a natural body opening.

During their pitch presentation, the team likened the current situation to eating hor fun with toothpicks.

“Endoscopic graspers do exist but they are tiny. And if you try using these tiny graspers to grab to the small intestine, you’re going to face a lot of problems. It’s just like grasping a piece of hor fun with a pair of tiny, tiny toothpicks. It’s going to slip, you’re going to tear the hor fun,” said Ms Chan.

So instead of incorporating their tool within the endoscope, they took an out of the scope approach, developing a slim and flexible attachment that would allow them to deliver a larger grasper to the surgical site via the endoscope.

And while weight-loss surgery was the jumping off point for their project, the team believes that their innovation could revolutionise many more procedures.

Mr Chua said: “While our initial focus is on bariatric surgery, we believe the E-Grasper™ can redefine surgical procedures more broadly. Our hope is that this innovation will not only make weight-loss surgery a more accessible and less intimidating option for patients but also transform the future of surgery as a whole.”

Demonstrating the third iteration of their prototype at a booth outside the amphitheatre where the main proceedings took place, the team had both a look-like prototype that was fitted to an endoscope as well as an enlarged model that visitors could use to try out the functionality of their grasper. With a hollow core, other working tools can be deployed in combination with the grasper.

Team Conexus poses for a photo with their latest prototypes. Medical fellow Mr Jasper Chua from Duke-NUS relished the rare opportunity to collaborate with peers from other schools: The programme is thoughtfully designed to align with the local healthcare landscape, making the lessons highly relevant and impactful. What truly stood out to me was the enthusiasm of our instructors — they took time out of their busy schedules to share invaluable insights with us every Wednesday night.”

 
“We are super happy that we are the most popular team,” said Ms Qiao before adding: “This is definitely not the end for us and there are other grants that we’re looking forward to apply to. There are other use cases that we want to explore, and I think the next step will be really focusing on how we are going to carry this forward.”

As for Team ReVision, they have a clear vision of what they need to do next: Having tested their device on seven to fifteen-year-olds, they want gather data to explore whether they can further enhance the device to achieve a better fit for children of all ages and adults as well.

That projects do not end with the fellowship is the ultimate goal. During his remarks, Assoc Prof Laing said: “The impact we expect is not just from the outcomes of research projects themselves. It's also through the nurturing of future leaders with the skills and drive to bring solutions to market.”

Team E-Raze poses with their innovation—SafeCut™—which they hope will make removal of precancerous growths easier. The team’s business fellow Ms Nicole Hoong and engineering fellow Mr Julian Tan also walked away with the 2025 Outstanding Fellow Award in their discipline. Medical fellow Ms Low Xi Zhi noted that the programme “provides a supportive environment for asking deeper questions and understanding the limitations of our current clinical practice. This allows us to drive meaningful and practical change in clinical processes that will improve patients’ lives.”
 

Team DAJJLE presents their innovative method of making light work of heavy lead aprons. Said the team’s medical fellow and Duke-NUS student Ms Danielle Yap, “Watching the healthcare team endure long hours in heavy lead aprons really made me appreciate what they go through. They work so hard to take care of their patients, often pushing through discomfort and fatigue. As a medical student, I want to make sure we’re looking out for them too.” 
 

Team Lumos presents their innovation—a specially designed screen overlay that bends peripheral light rays so they converge in front of the retina, minimising elongation of the eyeball and reducing the risk of myopia. Dr Faye Ng, who now works as a junior doctor, shares: “I loved every part of the journey, from lessons on the business canvas model to our immersion at Duke University – when spring was just starting, and the cherry blossoms were erupting into bloom – and the friendships I made along the way.” She added: “Because of the programme, I had the chance to work with team mates from Business and Biomedical Engineering, as well as mentors from industry and regulatory affairs, whom I otherwise wouldn’t have had the chance to interact with.”

All photos in this story are copyrighted to Duke-NUS Medical School.