National Healthcare Group, a healthcare cluster covering central and northern Singapore, is looking to integrate AI assistants into its radiology workflow.
According to a press release, the group will deploy South Korea-based Lunit’s AI solution to analyze chest X-rays in its primary care. diagnostic imaging system
Lunit INSIGHT CXR will be piloted for 10 months at Geylang Polyclinic starting in October. Findings from this pilot will inform the full-scale rollout of the solution at the remaining NHG polyclinics.
WHY IT MATTERS
Until recently, radiologists at NHG polyclinics still reviewed, analyzed, and interpreted CXR images themselves.
Lunit’s AI solution will complement their CXR image analysis work, which has been growing in volume over time, according to NHG. It can quickly spot significant abnormalities indicative of heart and lung conditions in CXR.
“We believe that using Lunit INSIGHT CXR as a triage tool can help NHG family physicians manage patients more effectively, reducing waiting times for discharge or transfer to higher emergency facilities,” said Tan Cher Heng, associate professor and director of research and innovation at NHG.
THE BIGGER CONTEXT
Funded by Singapore’s National Healthcare Innovation Centre, the AI deployment will be done through Singapore’s National Radiology AI Platform, AimSG (AI Medical Imaging Platform for Singapore’s Public Healthcare System).
Vendor-neutral platform, developed by Synapxe, NTT Data and SingHealth, aims to empower public hospitals and healthcare facilities to adopt validated AI imaging solutions to improve their diagnostic capabilities and efficiency.
AimSG initially supports the integration of a similar AI solution from Lunit into the radiology department’s workflow Singapore General Hospital and Changi General Hospital.
In other related news, Lunit signed an agreement with Samsung Electronics earlier this year to integrate its AI CXR solutions into the company’s line of high-end X-ray machines. In addition to supporting national cancer screening programs around the world, Lunit’s AI solutions have been increasingly adopted by military units across Asia-Pacific.
