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Synapxe, Singapore's national health tech agency, has introduced two interoperability standards supporting the development of new medical devices and digital health solutions.
The agency collaborated with the Centre of Regulatory Excellence - Standards Development Organisation (Core-SDO) and Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG), through the Singapore Standards Council (SSC), to roll out the following new Singapore Standards (SS):
- SS719:2025, Guidelines on Data Standard (Terminology) to Support Interoperability of Healthcare System Records, provides guidance on structuring and exchanging clinical information across different healthcare systems.
- SS720:2025, Remote Clinical Monitoring, supports data integration for remote clinical monitoring solutions, including wearables, telehealth apps, and digital monitoring devices.
SS719 ensures that information, such as patient details, lab results, medicines, and diagnoses, follows the same format and language. "For example, if a startup builds a tool to track vaccination records, it can use the same codes that hospitals already recognise, making the information easy to share, exchange, and trusted," Synapxe explained to Healthcare IT News.
HL7 FHIR-based SS720 enables the safe and consistent integration of health information, such as blood pressure, sugar levels, or weight readings, from devices at home with end-user systems, including EMR systems, clinic management systems, and patient portals.
These standards will be available to startups and innovators joining Synapxe's HealthX Innovation Sandbox (HX-IS) 2.0, where they are provided a simulated clinical environment to test the integration of their technological solutions with EMRs, guided by the new standards. The sandbox also offers access to over 2,300 healthcare APIs to create HL7 FHIR-based interoperable solutions.
WHY IT MATTERS
Synapxe emphasises that the new standards will help health tech innovators manage and transmit health information as part of developing interoperable solutions and supporting continuity of care.
In a media release, Synapxe says these standards "can reduce integration complexity and costs in the later phases of the product development cycle." The agency further explained that startups "will not require major technical reconfiguration."
"A key benefit [of these standards] is that startups can then easily integrate their solutions with hospital systems, ensuring smooth data exchange and faster innovation," Synapxe explained to this publication.
THE LARGER CONTEXT
The interoperability standards reinforce trust in digital health systems among providers and patients, specifically in the biomedical and healthcare domains, said Synapxe. Its development also aligns with the national preventative health strategy, Healthier SG, which includes enhancing access to quality services through technology and innovation.
In May, Synapxe launched HX-IS 2.0, which now leverages Singapore's Healthcare Commercial Cloud (HCC) to allow startups to demonstrate, test, and validate their solutions in a safe environment. It now also lets developers utilise synthetic, anonymised data generated through the analytics platform, HEALIX.
ON THE RECORD
"Singapore has always actively pushed for interoperability in healthcare to support continuity of care for our population and allow public healthcare providers to make informed clinical decisions. The launch of these two new standards to be incorporated in our HealthX Innovation Sandbox 2.0 underscores our commitment to support the public healthcare ecosystem and provide the necessary resources for our startups and innovators in the health tech ecosystem to build their solutions faster in an interoperable manner," said Henry Kang, director of Innovation and Capabilities Enablement (ICE), at Synapxe.
"Alongside the proliferation of new technologies and digital health solutions, it is crucial that we establish clear guidelines that help healthcare providers build interoperability and trust in their solutions. Without such standards, we risk creating data silos and disrupting the quality of patient care across different healthcare systems. By implementing these new standards, we can ensure that our digital health infrastructure remains robust and continues to support innovative solutions that address emerging healthcare needs," said Choy Sauw Kook, Director-General (Quality and Excellence) at Enterprise Singapore.
