In more detail
The government has been laying the groundwork for its healthcare AI strategy with the following initiatives:
1. Health Empowerment Through Advance Learning and Intelligent eXchange (HEALIX)
HEALIX is a secure platform for anonymized clinical and socioeconomic data sharing to build and train AI models for healthcare. The infrastructural platform is ready, and public healthcare institutions have been successfully onboarded.
2. HealthX Innovation Sandbox
Synapxe set up the HealthX Innovation Sandbox, which replicates a real-world environment using synthetic and anonymized data generated by HEALIX. This allows start-ups and innovators to experiment and develop practical use cases.
3. The right regulatory approach
The MOH is setting up a regulatory sandbox for AI software-as-medical devices (AI-SaMDs), where licensed public healthcare institutions can deploy the devices in-house without a manufacturer's license or product registration. All public healthcare institutions under MOH will be considered as one system, which will mean that they would be able to deploy AI-SaMDs even without a manufacturer's license or product registration.
Following the foundation prepared by the government, the MOH shared use cases of AI in the healthcare industry, including the following:
- Chest X-ray AI being used at Geylang Polyclinic to prioritize cases, with upcoming deployments at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (for tuberculosis screening) and Woodlands Health (for bone fracture detection). The aim is for this capability to be rolled out nationally by end 2026.
- Generative AI tools, such as SingHealth's Note Buddy, supporting over 2,100 healthcare workers in creating more than 16,000 clinical and administrative notes. All public healthcare institutions will be using such tools by the end of 2025.
- HealthHub, an app that holds citizens' health records, will be consolidated with apps from Singapore's three healthcare clusters: Health Buddy, NHG Cares App and NUHS App.
- HealthHub AI, a conversational AI-enhanced version of the national health app, is in beta testing and will offer multilingual, personalized health advice by end-2025.
- Predictive AI models will underpin the next phase of Healthier SG, enabling early identification of individuals at risk of serious conditions such as stroke, cardiac arrest and kidney failure. This will support targeted preventive care and social prescribing.
Key takeaways
With a clear robust infrastructure (e.g., HEALIX and regulatory sandboxes) and an open vision to embrace the use of AI, it is likely that healthcare institutions will increasingly adopt AI in their delivery of healthcare services in Singapore. While this signals that Singapore will be a growing market for AI-SaMDs, the MOH cautions about the possible risks of AI, underscoring the importance for AI-SaMD developers to keep in mind industry best practices and regulatory guidance during the development of such AI.
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