Opening Address by SMS Tan Kiat How at Launch of Centre of AI in Medicine

OPENING ADDRESS BY SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION, MR TAN KIAT HOW AT THE LAUNCH OF CENTRE AI IN MEDICINE (C-AIM) ON 30 SEP 2024

Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman of the Governing Board at LKC Medicine;

Professor Joe Sim, Group CEO of the National Healthcare Group;

Professor Joseph Sung, Dean of LKC Medicine and Co-Director of the Centre of AI in Medicine;

Professor Miao Chun Yan, Senior Deputy Dean of the NTU College of Computing and Data Science, and Co-Director of the Centre of AI in Medicine;

Ladies and gentlemen, and distinguished guests.

1. It is my pleasure to join all of you today at the launch of the Centre of AI in Medicine, or ‘C- AIM’ in short. The Centre is jointly established by the National Healthcare Group and Nanyang Technological University.

2. The establishment of this Centre is another significant milestone in Singapore's journey to harness AI to improve the health and well-being of our citizens.

3. Singapore has always embraced the use of technologies to overcome our constraints, while remaining clear-eyed about the trade-offs, and actively working to minimise downsides. This pragmatic attitude has shaped our use of generations of general-purpose technologies, from computers, to the internet, to other digital innovations.

4. We adopt the same attitude and approach to AI, which has seen rapid advancements in recent times – especially in the field of generative AI. This belief underpins our National AI Strategy 2.0.

5. We are heartened by the recent shifts in discussions around AI, which have moved beyond the initial hype, towards a more sober focus on impact and returns on investment. The growing focus on impact has increased our ability to harness AI to solve real-world problems and make a difference to businesses and society. The emphasis on returns on investment has also encouraged more viable business models. Without a serious focus on these factors, it is difficult to build a sustainable and vibrant ecosystem around AI.

6. Hence, I am glad to see how stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem are applying their minds to harness AI, to deliver profound impact to our community and patients.

7. There is significant promise in the use of AI in healthcare – from discovering new therapeutics to improving treatment efficacy. For example, it took us half a century to understand the structures of a few hundred thousand proteins. With AI tools like AlphaFold, scientists have predicted the structures and interactions of over 600 million proteins in just a few years. This has revolutionised drug discovery. And we are just scratching at the surface of the potential of applying AI in this area.

8. Further downstream, AI is also tackling workforce shortages and rising healthcare costs – challenges that continue to mount with an ageing population across the world. Singapore feels these constraints especially acutely. Capabilities like predictive diagnostics help healthcare professionals overcome these challenges and better serve patient needs. For example, AI Singapore’s JARVIS-DHL project uses AI to identify patients at risk of diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol for early intervention, thereby slowing disease progression and complications.

9. AI is transforming clinical workflows and the patient journey, too. NUHS has trained its own large language model, RUSSELL-GPT, to summarise patient notes and write referral letters in just seconds. Its Endeavour AI platform also forecasts bed availability in hospitals, better optimising capacity and patient placement. Such efforts empower doctors to make data-driven decisions with speed and ease – allowing them to spend more time on patient care.

10. As AI transforms healthcare, safeguarding trust is of crucial importance. Singapore’s brand has a premium because of the trust we command in whatever we do – both domestically and internationally. This is after all what Prime Minister Lawrence Wong calls Singapore’s ‘greatest source of alpha’ – our reputation for trust, integrity, and reliability.

11. Likewise, trust is also at the heart of healthcare, underpinning the delivery of health and medical care from drug research and development to clinical practices. Even as we harness AI to realise its promise in healthcare, we must twin this pursuit with efforts to safeguard trust.

12. This entails tackling the technical and ethical complexities with using AI, such as ensuring diagnostic accuracy, transparency, and training AI systems on diverse datasets to ensure proper representation across populations. We must also manage the security and protection of sensitive healthcare data.

13. I am glad that the Centre of AI in Medicine is embarking on the next bound of partnerships to translate AI research into responsible clinical practice. Projects showcased at the booths highlight C-AIM’s efforts in building clinically implementable solutions.

14. The PRIME-CXR project for example rapidly and accurately triages chest x-rays to prioritise abnormal findings for faster clinical decisions. PRIME-CXR is also collaborating with start-up, Resaro, to develop a robust framework that evaluates which AI solutions deliver the highest clinical value.

15. These solutions are possible because of the critical nexus of AI researchers, engineers, and healthcare experts in C-AIM, applying Implementation Science methods to maximise the impact of AI in healthcare.

16. This collaborative effort is underpinned by fundamental steps to ensure ethical deployment– from committees that oversee data access, to training and education on informed AI practices, to regular engagements with experts and public on risk perceptions and effective governance.

17. Looking ahead, healthcare will remain not only a national challenge, but a global one – requiring the sharing of knowledge and expertise not just across disciplines and domains, but across sectors and borders too. Collaborations between academia, industry and the public sector will be increasingly important to enable a holistic transformation of healthcare.

18. I am therefore delighted to witness the signing of MOUs between C-AIM and the National Healthcare Group, Olympus, and the University of Yale School of Medicine.

19. I would like to end by thanking all of our partners, all of you here, researchers, PhD students, practitioners and community experts for being part of this important journey as we use AI to transform healthcare, wellness and delivery of such services to the public.

20. I look forward to the Centre’s exciting pipeline of projects moving forward.

21. Thank you so much.