Singapore invests $150M for public health genAI adoption

The Singaporean Ministry of Health is investing SG$200 million ($150 million) over the next five years to further implement new AI technologies across the island-nation state’s health system.

This new infusion to the MOH Health Innovation Fund supports the development and testbedding of technological innovations, including AI, making a “centralised push to scale them up into system-wide, national projects,” the ministry said in a statement.

It includes a generative AI project that automates record updating, which will be rolled out across the public healthcare system before end-2025. The MOH said it is committing to promote the use of genAI tools to “automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as documentation and summarisation of medical records.”

The ministry will also validate medical imaging AI that assists with breast cancer detection, which is eyed for progressive adoption as part of a national subsidised screening programme from end-2025.

THE LARGER TREND

There are ongoing government-backed initiatives across the Singaporean health system to build and integrate genAI models and applications. Last year, the national health tech agency Synapxe expanded its partnership with Microsoft to, among other projects, develop the Secure GPT for Healthcare Professionals, a common platform for developing large language models and genAI applications. The National University Health System also developed its own LLM-based chatbot called NUHS RUSSELL-GPT, which can summarise patient case notes and quickly write referral letters. Meanwhile, Singapore General Hospital has also taken an interest in applying genAI as part of pre-surgery assessments. 

The MOH is also promoting the uptake of medical imaging AI through the national radiology AI platform AimSG. Introduced last year, this vendor-neutral platform allows public hospitals to integrate validated AI into their workflows. Through this, two hospitals under SingHealth have adopted chest X-ray analysis AI. The National Healthcare Group is currently piloting the same AI in its cluster.

Alongside announcing new AI investments, the MOH also shared its plan to launch a national genetic testing programme by the middle of next year, initially targeting Familial Hypercholesterolemia.

Additionally, the MOH said it will improve the national governance on AI use in healthcare “to enable the development and deployment of more AI solutions while ensuring safe and secure care delivery to patients.”