National University Health System’s flagship hospital National University Hospitals (NUH) is building a new facility focused on enhancing the detection and diagnosis of digestive diseases through AI and other Other advanced technology.
Envisioned as a one-stop shop for digestive and liver services, the National University Center for Digestive Health is touted as the first center in Singapore to deploy three AI-powered systems to detection, diagnostics and quality control, will work together to effectively identify gastrointestinal cancer lesions and enable near real-time diagnosis.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
The center aspires to become the leading academic center for digestive health in Southeast Asia, aiming to raise standards in early detection, accurate diagnosis, treatment and prevention of digestive diseases. .
Integrating different AI systems will enable further treatments or interventions to be performed earlier for patients identified with high-risk lesions, NUH said, “potentially leading to to improve prognosis and treatment outcomes.
The importance of this early detection cannot be overemphasized: gastrointestinal cancer and liver cancer are among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in Singapore, accounting for one-third of the total. cancer cases in men and about 1 in 5 cases in women by 2021.
Besides leveraging AI, the center also seeks to develop a blood-based diagnostic test for gastric cancer, discover new biomarkers to more accurately detect colorectal cancer, and create New pancreatic cancer and liver cancer tests.
The National University Digestive Health Center is expected to be established in the first half of 2025.
BIGGER TREND
Another center dedicated to addressing the rising cases of digestive cancer in Singapore, the NUH Endoscopy Centre, last year introduced an X-ray-based display system that features advanced 3D imaging to help enhance enhance the surgeon’s ability to identify suspicious tissues and be able to calculate the optimal dose for the patient. .
The Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), whose main teaching hospital is NUH, has also taken advantage of emerging technologies in training in the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. Recently it has introduced a mixed reality-based training module, powered by GigXR, a US-based holographic healthcare training provider.
AI also underpins a new center for community-based eye health care run by NUS Medicine. The The Center for Precision Eye Health and Innovation has launched AI based on retinal images to identify vision impairment and cataracts as well as predict biological age and risk of cardiovascular diseases.
