Singapore Health Services Pte Ltd.

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."

To assist healthcare professionals with clinical documentation during consultations, a new tool is being piloted by SingHealth, Singapore’s largest health cluster. Note Buddy, described as an ambient digital scribe, is able to take notes of patient interactions conducted in the country’s four official languages – English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. The tool, developed by SingHealth’s Division of Digital Strategy, records conversations with patients and transcribes them through speech-to-text software. It then produces structured medical summaries using genAI. Healthcare IT News paid a visit to the Diabetes & Metabolism Centre at Singapore General Hospital, a tertiary hospital within the SingHealth network, to see Note Buddy in action. Verbalisation and speech recognition Dr Goh Su-Yen, Senior Consultant at SGH's Department of Endocrinology, led a demonstration of the tool through a mock patient consult with a member of our team. Our colleague spoke in a mix of English and Tamil. Note Buddy produced a raw transcript of the consultation, followed by a summary with clearly defined sections such as medical history, social activities, ongoing symptoms, and even a potential prognosis for the clinician’s review. However, we observed that the system did not fully capture all the Tamil words spoken because the words were spoken too quickly or used too sparingly. Dr Goh said that if a clinician knows a patient's preferred language, they can select that option in Note Buddy. She went on to explain that multiple languages can still be detected and translated by the platform as long as they are spoken clearly in the majority of a sentence. The tool also reacts to prompts from the clinician. When our colleague stated that he had “pain in his middle to lower back”, Dr Goh responded with the medical term commonly used to describe that area (i.e., thoracic region). This detail was captured in the medical summary. Dr Goh pointed out how Note Buddy was able to recognise her as the doctor in the conversation and added that the tool would be able recognise input from other people – such as caregivers – who were also present during the conversation. Refinement from clinicians still crucial We did spot a minor inaccuracy in the summary. For example, the tool included the word “anorexia” in its summary after hearing that our colleague was taking Anarex to manage his back pain. He also mentioned that he was having digestive issues while taking the medication on an empty stomach. Dr Goh said that this could have possibly been caused by either the system capturing her advice that “it was always good to eat before painkillers” or the word Anarex not being articulated clearly enough. She emphasised the need for clear verbalisation and post-consultation checks to optimise Note Buddy. “This is why we make sure that clinicians are aware that [Note Buddy] documents conversations only. For a cancer patient, for example, I might have plans such as chemo treatment that were not fully articulated during the session. That’s when I can amend my notes after the consultation,” said Dr Goh. Improving patient care SingHealth launched Note Buddy so that healthcare professionals can focus on interactions with patients during clinic consultations and reduce the administration burden that comes with documentation. On top of note-taking and multi-language support, the tool’s features also include customisable prompts and secure notes retrieval. Clinicians can only access their own notes to maximise patient data confidentiality, and the platform removes notes from its system after 1 month for routine data protection. Dr Goh shared, "Using Note Buddy has allowed me to engage more meaningfully with my patients and reduce the cognitive burden of manually typing out what was discussed. I have found the notes captured by Note Buddy to be accurate. “The system can even selectively prioritise and capture the relevant and pertinent pieces of the patient’s medical history. I can now give my patients my full attention during our consultation sessions.” Note Buddy is currently accessible across all SingHealth institutions.

SINGAPORE, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Zeta Surgical, a surgical robotics and mixed reality company, announced today the completion of its first multicenter clinical trial using the Zeta Cranial Navigation System. The Zeta Cranial Navigation System is a mixed-reality navigation system for neurosurgery that provides surgeons with "GPS-like" guidance with millimetric accuracy in real time. Zeta's next-generation computer vision engine enables automatic, motion-aware registration, making navigated neurosurgery feasible for point-of-care delivery at virtually any location. The company received its latest 510(k) clearance from the U.S. FDA in January 2024. The trial was led by NNI Consultant Dr. Min Wei Chen and conducted at Singapore General Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital. It involved fifteen patients requiring elective and emergency ventriculostomy – a routine procedure traditionally performed without navigation, often resulting in revision surgeries and injury. During the trial, all patients were successfully cannulated in a single attempt and with no adverse events. "We feel very privileged and excited to be part of the forefront of medtech. It has been an enlightening journey watching how the project evolved from the lab to the operating theater. The results of the trial speak for themselves," said Dr. Chen. "We have learned such valuable lessons together as a team and look forward to the future where I am sure this navigation platform will become one of the key must-haves in the modern neurosurgical unit." "We're very thankful to our partners at NNI for collaborating with us on this trial," said Raahil Sha, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Zeta Surgical. "We look forward to launching commercial pilots across a broader spectrum of procedures, bringing our technology to hospitals across the United States." About Zeta Surgical Zeta Surgical is redefining the standard of care for image-guided surgery. Its cutting-edge navigation and robotics platform applies advanced AI to enable high-accuracy image guidance across any point-of-care in minutes, unlocking a new era of less invasive and more effective targeted therapies. The Zeta Surgical Cranial Navigation System is cleared by the FDA and commercially available in the US. Discover more at . Media contacts: Jose Amich, [email protected] SOURCE Zeta Surgical