Singapore’s National University Hospital is launching an AI-powered digestive center
The National University Health System’s flagship hospital, National University Hospital (NUH), is building a new facility focused on improving the detection and diagnosis of digestive diseases through AI and other advanced technologies.
The National University Center for Digestive Health, which is intended to be a one-stop center for gastroenterology and hepatology services, is touted as the first in Singapore to implement three AI-powered detection, diagnosis and quality control systems, which will work together om can effectively identify cancerous gastrointestinal lesions and enable near real-time diagnosis.
WHY IT MATTERS
The center, which aims to be the leading academic center for digestive health in Southeast Asia, aims to raise the bar in early disease detection, accurate diagnosis, treatment and prevention of digestive diseases.
By integrating different AI systems, NUH says, treatments or follow-up interventions can be administered earlier to patients with high-risk lesions, “potentially leading to improved prognosis and treatment outcomes.”
The importance of this early detection cannot be overstated: gastrointestinal and liver cancers are among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in Singapore, accounting for a third of all cancer cases in men and about a fifth of cases in women in 2021. .
In addition to deploying AI, the center also aims to develop a blood-based diagnostic test for stomach cancer, discover new biomarkers for more accurate detection of colorectal cancer, and develop new pancreatic and liver cancer tests.
The National University Center for Digestive Health is expected to be established in the first half of 2025.
THE BIG TREND
Another center dedicated to tackling Singapore’s growing cases of digestive cancer, the NUH Endoscopy Centre, last year introduced an can calculate dose for patients. .
The National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine), whose main teaching hospital is NUH, has also deployed emerging technologies in the training of diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. It’s recently introduced a mixed reality-based training module powered by GigXR, a US-based holographic healthcare training provider.
AI is also supporting a new center for community-based eye care, run by NUS Medicine. The Center for Innovation and Precision Eye Health has come up with a photo-based retinal AI for identifying visual impairment and cataracts and predicting biological age and cardiovascular disease risk.