AI to Help Doctors Predict Disease Risk in Next Phase of Healthier SG: Minister

But human touch of doctors still irreplaceable, says Ong Ye Kung as he lists healthcare AI projects

- Lee Li Ying

National health records and socioeconomic and genetic data may be used to support preventive care and social prescribing as the next bound of Singapore's Healthier SG programme.

Announcing this at the inaugural AI Accelerate conference on June 16, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said predictive artificial intelligence (AI), dubbed the next frontier in healthcare transformation, can help doctors predict many years in advance if someone is likely to develop serious conditions.

"This will be in the next bound of Healthier SG, leveraging health records, evidence-based clinical risk scoring and AI's predictive powers to support preventive care and social prescribing," said Mr Ong at the conference organised by national healthcare technology provider Synapxe and held in Punggol Digital District.

But he added that humans are still irreplaceable. "We will continue to maintain the human touch through our family doctors, guiding and empowering residents to take charge of health outcomes before illness strikes," he said, likening using AI with no doctors to flying a plane without a pilot.