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Speeches

Opening Address by SMS Tan Kiat How at AI Health World Summit 2025

19 March 2025

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Professor Ng Wai Hoe, Group CEO of SingHealth

Associate Professor Patrick Tan, Senior Vice-Dean of Research at Duke-NUS Medical School

Dr Lisa Ooi, Assistant Chief Executive of the Biomedical Research Council at A*STAR

Dr Brian Anderson, CEO of the Coalition for Health in AI

Distinguished speakers, delegates

Friends from around the world

  1. A very good morning and it is my pleasure to join you today at the third AI Health World Summit.

  1. I commend the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre and A*STAR for convening this community from across borders, disciplines, and industries.

  1. All of us here have the shared goal to transform healthcare in our communities and are joined in the belief that AI plays an important role to achieve this aim.

  2. Singapore has always been a firm believer in using technology to overcome our many constraints – land, labour and small market size.

  3. In this regard, AI is a technology with significant potential.

  1. Our healthcare sector had embraced AI early on.

    • a. For example, our radiologists were amongst the earliest adopters in using AI to detect anomalies in medical scans.

  2. Generative AI has further opened up new possibilities for clinical efficiency.

    • a. An example is SingHealth’s Note Buddy tool that was launched last August.

    • b. The tool transcribes and summarises consultations in real-time and in different languages.

    • c. It reduces the doctors’ administrative workload, freeing them to have more meaningful interactions with their patients.

  3. Importantly, AI has also given us the capability to adopt a more personalised approach to medical intervention, at scale and at lower cost.

    • a. An example is the Singapore General Hospital’s AI2D (Augmented Intelligence in Infectious Diseases) model. The model personalises antibiotic prescriptions for patients, reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance.

    • b. Another example is AI Singapore’s CURATE.AI that optimises chemotherapy doses for individual patients.

    • c. Instead of basing medical interventions just on population-based clinical trials, these early efforts have the potential to improve intervention outcomes by enabling decisions to be informed by an individual’s unique responses to biomarkers related to genetics, lifestyle, and medical history.

  4. AI also improves our predictive capabilities, allowing doctors to shift more interventions upstream towards preventive care.

    • a. For example, aiTriage, a cardiac risk tool developed by the Singapore General Hospital, Duke-NUS Medical School, and DxD Hub, can predict a patient’s risk of a major cardiac event in the next 3 or 30 days.

    • i. Using just an ECG device and mobile app, healthcare workers can identify at-risk patients and make triaging decisions in under 7 minutes, thereby significantly improving the chances of someone surviving a cardiac arrest.

    • b. These early detection capabilities are also valuable in peri-operative medicine. CARES 2 is one such surgical risk model.

    • i. Developed by the Singapore General Hospital and National University of Singapore, it can predict the likelihood of post-operation complications, and inform the need for re-admission or ICU admission. These predictions facilitate early interventions.

  5. AI gives us the tools to go further upstream, for example looking at how we can shape behaviours early and reduce disease risks well before symptoms emerge.

    • a. An example is a partnership between the National University of Singapore's Schools of Medicine and Computing, and Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, along with FriendsLearn Inc – a technology inventor and translation partner.

    • b. They will establish a Centre of Excellence in Singapore for the use of AI in precision prevention, via what we call ‘digital vaccines’.

    • c. These digital vaccines use neurocognitive training, implicit learning, and immersive gaming to encourage healthier behaviours in children – safely and effectively priming neurodevelopment and gut biome health.

    • d. This induces and reinforces changes at the neuro-physiological level underlying behaviours and choices, during the critical habit-formation stage of childhood. We look forward to tracking how this method can improve lifelong health and cognitive wellbeing for generations to come.

  6. We are scratching at the surface of the immense possibilities that AI brings to healthcare.

    • a. Cutting-edge projects are transforming the way we study pathology and design medical interventions.

    • b. Take for example Google Deepmind’s new AlphaProteo system. It can generate new molecule binders for proteins associated with cancer and diabetes, helping regulate critical cellular processes.

    • c. We are coming closer to targeting proteins once thought ‘undruggable’, and conditions thought incurable.

    • d. With these advances, we can possibly cure many more forms of cancer in our lifetime!

  7. The implications of these advances are profound.

  1. But equally remarkable is how they've emerged from the intersection of different fields – computer science, molecular biology, clinical medicine and more.

  1. This convergence of expertise reminds us that our greatest breakthroughs come not from technology alone, but from bringing diverse minds together.

  1. Such interdisciplinary conversations must begin by bringing together different parts of the ecosystem.

    • a. This is why our national healthtech agency, Synapxe, launched its HEALIX analytics platform last year to consolidate data infrastructure across our public hospitals. With a unified secure platform for AI development, HEALIX makes analytics projects with anonymised national data possible.

  2. We are also bridging the gap between research and clinical implementation. At the recent Budget Debate in Parliament, DPM Heng spoke of the importance of ‘bilingual’ talent – researchers who combine AI research with domain expertise like many of you in the audience here today.

  1. This focus on applied AI research is crucial. The Government has committed $120 million to the AI for Science programme. This initiative supports the integration of AI and scientific research, including in the biomedical and health sciences fields.

  1. To sustain this flow of research to practice, we will continue investing in platforms for interdisciplinary learning and application.

  1. Today, I am pleased to launch the SingHealth Duke-NUS AI in Medicine Institute, or AIMI.

    • a. This Institute will bring together expertise from SingHealth and Duke-NUS Medical School, with four priorities.

    • i. First, to spearhead research in frontier AI technologies, including foundation models and agentic AI.

    • ii. Second, to champion AI literacy, fostering a culture of informed adoption amongst healthcare professionals and the public alike.

    • iii. Third, to bridge the gap between research and real-world application, driving the global commercialisation of innovative AI projects.

    • iv. Fourth, to lead the development of robust ethical guidelines, which emphasise responsible AI, patient safety, and data privacy.

  2. The priorities of this institute highlight some of the challenges that lie ahead of us.

  1. When we last held this Summit in 2023, GenAI had just taken the world by storm. Since then, global perspectives towards AI have matured, with a clearer view of its actual benefits and risks.

  1. Trust must be our North Star.

  1. Trust has always underpinned healthcare; our communities, our patients entrust us with their lives.

  1. But with AI, we tread a fine line between medical breakthroughs and risks. Challenges from algorithmic transparency to unrepresentative training data may undermine the safety of AI solutions, and erode patients’ trust in the healthcare institutions and professionals.

  1. That is why we must not lose sight of robust governance and the focus on patient outcomes even as we experiment and innovate with new technologies.

  1. We must bring together key stakeholders in the development process - clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and importantly patients and their families.

  1. It is this collective effort that builds trust, where collaboration and shared commitment lead to lasting confidence. This is why efforts like today’s Summit are critical.

  1. It is in this spirit that I am also heartened to witness the signing of an MOU between SingHealth and the Coalition for Health AI, or CHAI.

    • a. CHAI is a US-based non-profit organisation, dedicated to establishing guidelines and best practices for safe, effective, and equitable AI across healthcare.

    • b. CHAI brings together academic health systems, organisations, and expert practitioners, with members including Google, Johns Hopkins University, Mayo Clinic, Microsoft, and Stanford Medicine.

  2. The MOU being signed today is a pledge of commitment by both organisations to raise awareness of responsible AI use in healthcare.

    • a. This will involve the co-creation of AI guidelines, publications, and policy recommendations, ensuring that the use of AI in healthcare remains ethical, transparent, and focused on transforming patient care.

  3. There are many exciting opportunities and possibilities lie ahead of us – as a community, as society, as humanity. But let us always remember the true measure of AI’s success in healthcare is not the technical advancements but its ability to improve lives.

  1. I wish everyone a fruitful Summit.

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