Singapore’s National HealthTech agency, Synapxe, has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) to drive collaboration and scalable innovation in HealthTech for Singapore’s healthcare ecosystem.

Bringing together Synapxe’s expertise in public healthcare, IT infrastructure management and solutions development, with A*STAR’s scientific prowess in areas of digital health, artificial intelligence, and privacy-enhancing technologies, the MoU aims to;

• Identify and aggregate common challenges in healthcare and its administration in Singapore
• Identify and develop emerging technologies
• Co-create scalable solutions to accelerate deployment into the healthcare ecosystem

The MoU signing was held in conjunction with the HealthX seminar “AI Medical Imaging Platform” - attended by clinicians and researchers across the public healthcare sectors, and industry partners who conducted sharing sessions on how their AI models can assist radiologists in improving their diagnostic imaging workflows and implanting AI technology in the healthcare sector.

Commenting on the MOU, Mr Glenn Neo, Director of Innovation Capabilities Enablement, Synapxe, said, “A*STAR and Synapxe are bound by a shared vision to inspire tomorrow’s health. Today marks the next step on our journey together, as we foster greater synergy and renew our commitment to drive innovation and collaboration for Singapore’s public healthcare system.”

Prof Tan Sze Wee, Assistant Chief Executive, Biomedical Research Council, A*STAR, said, “A*STAR works closely with our clinical partners to develop impactful healthcare solutions. Through the Synapxe-A*STAR MoU, we aim to spur translation of these solutions to public healthcare institutions to benefit patients, better support healthcare workers, and improve healthcare delivery.”

Addressing Complex Challenges of AI Imaging Model Deployment with AimSG

One key initiative under the Synapxe-A*STAR MoU is the development of a pilot project to onboard APOLLO onto AimSG.

AimSG is a common and open platform that enables the rapid development, testing and deployment of AI imaging models from different sources for various imaging modalities. AI imaging models, such as APOLLO, automate the analysis of medical images with greater speed and accuracy, enabling more efficient triaging of patients with different care needs. It also helps radiologists more efficiently generate radiology reports with accuracy. This potentially improves the quality of clinician diagnoses, while reducing unnecessary tests and procedures.

APOLLO is an AI-enabled CT scan interpretation software co-developed by A*STAR together with its partners, Duke-NUS Medical School, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS), National University Hospital (NUH) and Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH). It has shown to be able to reduce manual CT scan interpretation, which typically takes one to four hours, to under 10 minutes.