The 17th Biomedical and Health Standards Committee (BHSC) meeting paired a heartfelt farewell to its founding Chair with an ambitious look ahead — from a landmark precision medicine roadmap to Singapore’s growing voice on the international stage.
There are meetings that keep the wheels turning, and there are meetings that mark a turning point. The 17th BHSC meeting was firmly the latter. Members gathered on 24 July 2026 at Clarke Quay to close one remarkable chapter of leadership and open another — and, between the two, to endorse a roadmap that could shape how precision medicine reaches Singapore patients for years to come.
Thank you, Dr Yong — and welcome, Mr Lee
The afternoon opened with warmth and a little emotion. After nine years and three terms — almost a full decade — Dr Yong Chern Chet stepped down as Chair of the Committee he had helped shape since April 2017. The Committee marked the moment with an appreciation poem read aloud on its behalf, a crystal award, a commemorative photo and a personal gift — a fitting tribute to a leader whose steady hand guided the BHSC through years of change.
In a gracious closing address, Dr Yong turned the credit outward, thanking members and the secretariat for the voluntary effort that powers the Committee’s work, and offering particular thanks to Advisor Ms Jacqueline Monteiro for her support since he first took on the role. He reflected that the Committee has reinvented itself several times over his tenure — a pattern of evolution he expects to continue — and noted with evident pride that the BHSC has stepped firmly onto the global stage, drawing in members from frontier technology fields that were once well outside its remit.
The Committee has moved onto the global playing field, and is now attracting members from frontier technology areas that were not traditionally part of its remit — an exciting basis for future success.
— Reflections from outgoing Chair Dr Yong Chern Chet
Happily, this is more a change of seat than a goodbye: Dr Yong will remain with the Committee as Advisor for the rest of the term, alongside Ms Monteiro.
Taking up the Chair is Mr Lee Suen Ming, who joins from his role as Deputy Chair of the Technical Committee for Healthcare and Health Informatics. Recalling that he had known Dr Yong since 2017, Mr Lee spoke of his intention to explore how artificial intelligence can be better harnessed across the BHSC and the wider Standards Council — including the possibility of weaving AI considerations into the precision medicine agenda. He indicated he would consult members further before the next formal meeting to gather their views.
The Committee welcomed several new faces, including Dr Lee Eng Sing (MOHT), A/Prof Charlene Liew (SingHealth), Mr Michael Chai (Eurofins Clinical Diagnostics) and Dr Sethuraman Rama (Roche Diagnostics), while the current serving term has been extended to 30 September 2027.
From 66 to 68 standards — and a first for AI
The Committee’s standards catalogue continues to grow, rising from 66 to 68 published standards (64 Singapore Standards and 4 Technical References). Two of these landed in April, including a milestone the Committee has been working towards for some time: its first-ever AI standard, an adoption of TR ISO/IEC TR 24027 on bias in AI systems and AI-aided decision making.
Several more standards are moving through the pipeline, including TR 151 on the clinical investigation of medical devices, the locally drafted SS FMT processing protocol, an updated SS ISO 14155 on good clinical practice, and the newly split two-part TR 67 on connected medical device cybersecurity. A new series, ISO 21474 on multiplex molecular testing for nucleic acids, is also being adopted.
A roadmap for the standards behind precision medicine
The centrepiece of the afternoon was the Precision Medicine Standardisation Roadmap — one of three emerging priorities for the Committee, alongside AI in healthcare and healthcare sustainability. As Singapore’s National Precision Medicine programme works towards genomic, clinical and lifestyle data for roughly 500,000 individuals, the roadmap sets out the trusted, interoperable standards needed to carry that ambition into routine care — across the laboratory, the data layer and clinical AI.
Built by four working groups since the 2024 strategic planning session, the roadmap rests on a repeatable eight-step methodology — scope, catalogue, screen, shortlist and prioritise, map, chart, adopt and maintain — and organises every standard against a clear scope framework.
The BHSC endorsed the consolidated precision medicine standardisation workplan and its FY25–FY28 domain roadmaps, clearing the way for the National Mirror Working Groups to proceed with adoptions and Singapore-led ISO projects.
Members were also introduced to a new evaluation framework for assessing new work item proposals, now compiled into a full user guide with an easy-to-navigate HTML version. Going forward, members will score each proposal via a digital form, which CoRE-SDO will consolidate into a Committee consensus.
Singapore’s standards, going global
If one theme ran through the meeting, it was Singapore’s rising international profile. The Committee currently holds nine Participating (P) memberships across ISO technical committees, and its lone Observer membership — ISO TC 215 on health informatics — is being elevated to full P-membership, supported by a newly assembled 15-member National Mirror Working Group drawn from government, industry and academia.
Over the past half year, Singapore’s representatives were active across the globe — from the Joint Working Group on AI-enabled health informatics hosted in Singapore, to genomics informatics in Japan, quality and competence in Canada, biotechnology in France, quality systems in the Czech Republic, and molecular diagnostics in Berlin. A standout moment came in Japan, where a Singapore-led proposal on quality control metrics for whole genome sequencing — developed by A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore — was unanimously endorsed for development within the ISO framework. Singapore has also been selected to host the ISO/TC 215/SC 1 Plenary in 2028.
Looking Ahead
With gratitude for a decade of service, a fresh mandate for the years ahead, and a full slate of national and international work in motion, the Committee closed on a forward-looking note. Members agreed to reconvene for the 18th BHSC meeting on 12 February 2027, just after Chinese New Year.
To the outgoing Chair — thank you. To the incoming Chair and refreshed Committee — welcome, and here’s to the chapters still to be written.