Synapxe, Singapore's national health tech agency, is set to announce new digital healthcare applications, solutions, and partnerships following significant government investment.
In October, the Ministry of Health announced SG$200 million ($150 million) funding over five years to implement new AI technologies as part of a "centralised push" to scale their integration into system-wide, national healthcare system projects.
The government, in particular, intends to promote the uptake of generative AI tools to "automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as documentation and summarisation of medical records." It aims to roll out a genAI-powered solution for automating the update of health records by the end of 2025.
In support, Synapxe launched a genAI learning repository, GenAIus Hub, and the Synapxe Tandem, which provides prompt templates for exploring and testing genAI applications at scale.
"We understand that not all healthcare professionals are comfortable using some of these technologies, especially in the newer fields like AI, largely due to a lack of familiarity or confidence in using these tools. To address this, Synapxe seeks to support public healthcare institutions by equipping them with the knowledge and the platforms to enable them to tap into AI and its tools more easily in their work," Andy Ta, Synapxe chief data officer and director of Data Analytics and AI, told Healthcare IT News.
Moreover, the agency is also hosting competitions that encourage healthcare practitioners to utilise genAI applications in real-life use cases and upskill in operationalising large language models through a gamified approach.
Beyond genAI, which generates new content based on learned patterns, Singapore is also exploring the potential application of agentic AI in healthcare.
"One area of particular interest in the coming years is the use of agentic AI, which has the potential to revolutionise healthcare by performing tasks autonomously with decision-making capabilities and goal-directed behaviour," Ta shared.
"This innovative approach allows AI systems to adapt to new situations and interact dynamically with their environment. By exploring agentic AI, we aim to enhance decision-making processes, improve coordination, and ultimately achieve better outcomes across large-scale healthcare systems," he explained.
THE LARGER TREND
Over the past two years, Synapxe launched platforms and programs promoting the adoption and integration of AI.
One of these is AimSG, an open, vendor-neutral platform providing hospitals and primary care centres with access to a range of medical imaging AI models that can be hot-swapped and deployed quickly. Among models, Lunit's chest X-ray solution has been piloted at Changi General Hospital, Singapore General Hospital, and the National Health Group Polyclinics.
A cloud-based platform, HEALIX, went live last year, allowing users to safely conduct analytics projects and quickly access comprehensive data for developing AI models.
