5 Key Elements of the JUMPstart Acceleration Methodology

JUMPstart (Joint University MedTech Programme) is Singapore’s only tri-university collaborative program for MedTech acceleration. We drive innovative biomedical research to new venture creation through an integrated product and business development approach. Our program is customizable, modular and tailored to the specific needs of each team. 

Depending on the stage of product development and commercial readiness we intake teams either into Entrepreneur and Commercial Development (ECD Program) or the Quality, Manufacturing and Intake (QMI Program)

So, here are five key elements we consider the hallmark of our acceleration methodology. 

1) Tailored Gap Identification 

We spend time with founding team to individually assess the gaps to market before they participate in structured workshops and learning modules.

While we are cohort based, we recognise that not all teams are at the exact same stage of their commercialisation journey. It is likely that founding team and start-ups come to us at different stages of their commercialisation journey. Therefore, we spend time with founding team to individually assess the gaps to market before they participate in structured workshops and learning modules. Our founders are encouraged to put in thought, right from the application stage, to address what they believe are the salient gaps to maximise our value addition to the teams. 

2) Know Your Customer 

In MedTech commercialisations there is often a distinction between the end consumer and paying customer. Our commercialization pathway deep dives into these nuanced distinctions and enables founders answer some strategic questions right at the beginning of their commercialisation journey. For example: What is the value addition of the proposed solution to buyers in healthcare want to de-risk their decisions? 

While MedTech founders certainly want to impact the health of the consumer, typically the end consumer does not pay for it.  By delving into patient journey mapping, customer journey mapping and reimbursement strategies, our start-ups are able to identify a clear path to market. We focus on driving our startups to reach a concise value proposition for the various stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem. For this we expose our start-ups to health economics so that they are able to critically evaluate and articulate the cost effectiveness of their solution to the different stakeholders in their customer journey. 

3) Clinician Engagement and Clinical Trial Preparedness 

Would a clinician be able to fit the new device in their existing workflow, or is it too much effort to change? How is the clinical workflow impacted for a physician, surgeon, nurse or allied health workers?

Clinician engagement is the core of this process and all of our start-ups engage with clinicians’ right from the market validation stage. 

Well, these are some of the questions that our start-ups answer in their path to becoming commercialisation ready. Clinician engagement is at the core of this process and all of our start-ups engage with clinicians’ right from the market validation stage. 

Another component of clinician engagement is to create enough data points for an independent clinical trial.  Clinical trials can make or break the path to market especially inresource constrained situations. Our program empowers founder to be realistic and make the right medical claims so as to optimise their clinical trial requirements. 

4) Understand Your Regulatory Pathway 

JUMPstart keeps up with the latest regulations and ensures each startup stays compliant

As a MedTech founder, most of our founders probably already know that they would have to go through regulatory requirements. However, what are those exactly depends a lot on their market and device regulatory class. Besides, with new regulations changes and stringent data privacy laws, we do not want our founders to feel lost and/or waste time and effort in navigating the regulatory maze. 

Our learning modules offers an overview of the regulatory landscape, but we supplement this and step in with our tailored approach to enable every start up in our cohort complete their specific regulatory requirements. Our strategy is to keep abreast the dynamic nature of regulatory landscape and create a clear direction to regulatory success. 

5) Design and Build a Medical Device 

Our founders go through workshops to learn the all the quality and compliance needs for a manufacturing-ready prototype.

We’ve found that MedTech founders realise much later in their journey that medical devices design and manufacturing, unlike MVP development, is tightly governed by regulations set out by FDA and ISO requirements. So, we address this early in our program. Our QMI components are geared to specifically address to such manufacturing requirements. 

We take our founders through intensive workshops for them to understand the nuanced requirements for a manufacturing-ready prototype build along with quality and compliance requirements. Be it a physical medical device or Software as a medical Device, we leverage our vast industry partnerships and network to cater to the specific needs of every medical device start-up in our cohort. 

Final Thoughts 

The path to MedTech and HealthTech commercialisation is intense and complex, which unfortunately leads to many burnout situations. Our program is easy, modular and well-structured to address every step for long term success of MedTech and HealthTech start-ups.


At JUMPstart (Joint University MedTech Programme), we drive innovative biomedical research to new venture creation through an integrated product and business development approach. Learn more about our program and join us to gain unprecedented access to a modular and customized program that boosts your chance at finding commercial success.

Are you a MedTech or HealthTech innovator? Write to us at jumpstart@nus.edu.sg to discuss how we can help you.

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