AI in healthcare a game changer for Singapore, if we get the rules right first

Regulatory guidelines must keep pace with the rapid technological changes driving today's generative AI systems.

- Jasmine Ong and Liu Nan

A tool to prevent overprescribing antibiotics, designed by Singapore General Hospital, that will help combat the global threat of multidrug-resistant infections.

Covid-19 mRNA vaccines and how the link with potentially fatal heart muscle or heart-lining inflammation could have been detected earlier.

These two healthcare scenarios have this in common: the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative large language models (LLMs) to make healthcare more safe for patients, either through their systemic abilities or how they can analyse vast amounts of data quickly.

However, current regulatory and governance approaches were built for AI tools designed to generate specific clinical decisions or recommendations, such as estimating a patient’s chance at getting kidney failure or identifying Covid-19 infection from chest X-rays.

In contrast, a single generative AI (GenAI) model can perform a wide range of tasks, from summarising medical information to suggesting diagnoses.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has flagged the use of AI in healthcare as an emerging regulatory issue.

MOH, along with the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and health tech agency Synapxe, co-developed the MOH Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Guidelines (AIHGle) – setting best practice for safe and responsible AI development and implementation in healthcare settings.

AIHGle, a living document, was first published in October 2021 before the widespread introduction and adoption of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. The emergence of these technologies has created new considerations around distinctive risks that need to be captured in the guidelines.

This is so that clinicians and patients can trust their use and take advantage of the huge potential they offer.

THE GAME CHANGER