East and Southeast Asia are aging rapidly, with the number of people aged 65 and over in the region projected to double by 2050. As such, there is a strong need to develop and harness innovative new technologies that can promote healthy aging and meet the demands of this increasingly significant market. This joint webinar, co-organized by the Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology (OIST) Foundation, the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE), and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), brought together a panel of representatives from both the academic and business sectors to discuss the importance of technology transfer. Participants considered such questions as: What are some of the barriers when it comes to moving an aging-related innovation from academic and research settings onto the market? What policies and regulatory frameworks are needed to allow for new products to be shared between countries in the region? How can we address ageism in both sectors, which might be influencing people to avoid working on innovations aimed at older people?
This event featured Dr. Lauren Ha from OIST’s Technology Development and Innovation Center and Dr. Michael Roizen, a noted expert on healthy longevity and wellness from the Cleveland Clinic. They were joined in the discussion by recent winners of the Healthy Aging Prize for Asian Innovation (HAPI), including Ms. Li Lian Ng, whose company Tetsuyu Healthcare has developed a new wound assessment and treatment system, and Dr. Siti Anom Bt. Ahmad, whose team at Universiti Putra Malaysia developed an autonomous delivery robot to meet the need for contactless delivery that emerged out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Event Details
Date: Tuesday, May 10 (US) | Wednesday, May 11 (Asia)
Time: 9:30pm–10:30pm EDT (GMT-4) | 10:30am–11:30pm JST (GMT+9)
Language: English
Organizers: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Foundation, Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE), and Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)
Speaker Bios
David Janes
Chief Advancement Officer, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST); President and CEO, OIST Foundation
David leads OIST’s development efforts in the United States and Japan and provides strategic guidance to OIST’s President and senior leadership. He was previously the Director of Foundation Grants and Assistant to the President at the United States-Japan Foundation, where he led the Foundation’s multi-million dollar grant-making program and served as the public face of the Foundation to grantees in the US and Japan. He served at the Foundation for nearly 18 years and managed over 100 active grantees. David holds three Masters degrees: in Religion from the University of Hawaii, in International Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and in Sociology from the New School for Social Research. David is also a Visiting Fellow at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy where he is overseeing a project on the role of philanthropy in U.S.-Japan relations.
Siti Anom Ahmad
Director, Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing (MyAgeing™), Universiti Putra Malaysia
Dr. Siti Anom Ahmad is the Director of Malaysian Research Institute of Ageing (MyAgeing™). She is also a Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Siti Anom received her PhD in Electronics in 2009 and MSc in Microelectronics System Design in 2004 from the University of Southampton, UK. She received her BEng in Electronic/ Computer from UPM in 1999. She is a Professional Engineer of Board of Engineers Malaysia, Chartered Engineer of Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), Senior Member of Institute of Electrical& Electronic Engineering (IEEE) and member of the Institute of Engineers Malaysia (IEM). Her research interests are biomedical engineering, artificial intelligence, gerontechnology and intelligent control system.
Lauren Ha
Associate Vice President, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology
Lauren is Associate Vice President of the Technology Development and Innovation Center at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, overseeing programs to commercialize research at the university. Prior to joining OIST, Lauren was Vice President of Administration at the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley, California where she played a key role in securing its designation as a national “Center of Excellence in Genomic Sciences” by the US National Institutes of Health. A native of Vietnam, Lauren received a BS in Biological Sciences in the US from the University of South Carolina.
Li Lian Ng
Co-Founder & Managing Director, Tetsuyu Healthcare Holdings
Li Lian is co-founder and Managing Director of Tetsuyu Healthcare, Singapore. She is responsible for strategic and corporate development, marketing and operations. Prior to founding Tetsuyu, Li Lian has close to two decades of experience in consumer banking where she drove strategy, marketing and business management. Li Lian and her team at Tetsuyu are pushing the boundaries on eldercare technologies with care management, AI wound management and other applications. The team was honoured with the HIMMS Asia Pacific Excellence in Start-up Innovation Award 2017, INNOVATION OF THE YEAR – TECHNOLOGY award at the 8th Eldercare Innovation Award 2020 and Grand Prize Winner for 2021 Healthy Aging Prize for Asian Innovation (HAPI). Li Lian holds a Bachelor of Accountancy from the National University of Singapore, a Bachelor of Law (Hons) from the University of London, an Advance Diploma in Wealth Management from the Wealth Management Institute and an Executive MBA from INSEAD.
Michael Roizen
MD, Emeritus Chief Wellness Officer, Cleveland Clinic
Michael F. Roizen, MD, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Williams College and Alpha Omega Alpha graduate of the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine who is passionate about helping people choose to live younger and healthier. He performed his residency in internal medicine at Harvard’s Beth Israel Hospital and completed Public Health Service at the National Institutes of Health in the laboratory of Irv Kopin and Nobel Prize winner Julius Axelrod. He is certified by both the American Boards of Internal Medicine and of Anesthesiology. Dr. Roizen is the Cofounder of RealAge Inc, which was sold in 2006, but still Chairs its Scientific Advisory Board. In 2007, Dr. Roizen was named Chief Wellness Officer at Cleveland Clinic, the first such position in a major healthcare institution in the United States. Dr. Roizen also served as founding Chair of the Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic from 2007 to 2017.