About Us

While life expectancy has increased in the last decade, those added years are sometimes marred by disease and disability. Whether due to injury, illnesses or the body’s natural wear and tear, the elderly are especially vulnerable to potentially immobilising conditions like stroke and knee osteoarthritis. Taking care of its rapidly ageing citizenry is thus a high priority for Singapore, where the elderly make up 15% of the nation’s population in 2020, up from 9% a decade before. This requires a fundamental shift towards health promotion and disease prevention.

Set up to proactively address these needs, the Rehabilitation Research Institute of Singapore (RRIS) is developing data-driven and patient-centric approaches in healthcare that prioritise quality of care. Founded by NTU; Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research and National Healthcare Group. RRIS seeks to achieve this through tripartite collaboration. Accordingly, its projects are led by pairing clinicians, scientists and technical experts as co-principal investigators.

This multidisciplinary approach is also reflected in the interrelated scope of the Institute’s three main research pillars of precision rehabilitation, ability data and assisted ability. In alignment with Singapore’s Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2025 research plan, RRIS aims to build on its expertise to do more in the area of advancing human potential. The Institute plans to expand its capabilities in precision medicine to enable it to use data in a confidential and secure manner, ultimately helping to achieve optimum patient outcomes and quality care.

 

About Rehabilitation Research Institute of Singapore (RRIS) 

The Rehabilitation Research Institute of Singapore (RRIS) supports research projects that harness the latest robotic, AI and machine learning technologies and a vast pool of patient case studies and data from the Asia region to:

 

Develop technology aids that will support the rehabilitation of the aged and patients with decreased mobility in a clinical and home environment

Design assistive aids that support patients in their continued mobility and recovery in the home

Provide patients with personalised care and an accurate prediction of their individual recovery trajectory based on a vast pool of mobility data

Deliver insights into how a patient’s current mobility will impact future mobility as they age so that corrective and preventive action can be taken to improve the patient’s quality of life in old age and to lessen the burden on healthcare institutions

 

Asian-centric joint research institute promoting mobility

RRIS is an Asian-centric, joint research institute, established in 2016 to combine the collaborative work of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and National Healthcare Group (NHG). As such, we are well-positioned to facilitate the organic growth of an ecosystem of healthcare providers, academic and research institutions, industries and the community designed to assist patients with rehabilitation and assistive mobility needs.

 

Areas of research

Our research and innovation activities at RRIS are categorised broadly into 3 thematic areas:

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Ability Data

The Ability Data aims to create the world’s largest database of physical ability of people across age groups.

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Precision Rehabilitation

Our research will look at how we can detect various medical conditions earlier, conduct precision assessment, restoration of ability by providing rehabilitation through a personalised approach.

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Assisted Ability

We aim to make assistive technology (AT) more effective in enhancing the ability of a person and serve their needs at work and in the home.

 

Funding support

We have organised 4 rounds of Rehabilitation Research Grant to seed projects co-led by partner institutions and hosts externally funded projects by national funding agencies and co-invested by private companies.

 

Work with us

We are committed to the work we are doing and believe it plays an important part in the healthcare of the future. We aim to help the elderly age in place in their homes where possible and lead a good and independent quality of life. We invite interested research institutions and investors to collaborate on and expand our research projects so that we may have a greater impact on providing better healthcare for the elderly. Do contact us for further details.