Singapore’s national healthtech agency launches new innovation lab

When senior citizens collect medicine from clinics, the mental load of remembering all their pills and the schedules to take them can be enough to deter many from staying the course. A study from 2021 found that older people in Singapore are more likely to forgo their prescribed medications than the international average.

To solve this problem, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, a hospital located in Yishun, Singapore, has partnered with Synapxe, Singapore’s national healthtech agency, to develop a generative AI (GenAI)-based tool that pharmacists can use to quickly generate eye-catching infographics that can inform and remind patients of their pill regimens.

This is just one of many such collaborations between Synapxe and its partners. The agency, which oversees the public health IT landscape, has just launched Terrarium, an innovation lab that aims to facilitate the co-development of healthtech solutions and platforms in collaboration with public healthcare bodies, and industry partners.

“Terrarium underscores our role as a partner to our public healthcare institutions, and ambition to work with companies big and small, high-tech and R&D clusters, to bring about game-changing innovations that will deliver exceptional impact across our healthcare cluster,” said Synapxe’s CEO, Ngiam Siew Ying.

The Terrarium lab, which was officially launched by Minister of Health Ong Ye Kung on September 18, is located on level five of Synapxe’s new office at Elementum in One-North. It will be a “dedicated and safe space” for industry partners to “ideate, experiment, and connect” with public healthcare entities.

At the launch, Synapxe showcased its approach to driving healthcare innovation and enabling closer public-private collaborations.

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Platform-based approach to AI innovation

Synapxe has increasingly adopted a platform-based approach to support artificial intelligence (AI) innovation within the public health ecosystem. These platforms were a key focus at the launch of the new lab.

Most recently, the agency launched Tandem, a secure platform that public healthcare professionals can tap on when experimenting and deploying GenAI applications.

For instance, regional health cluster SingHealth used Tandem to develop Note Buddy, a GenAI-powered documentation tool that transcribes and summarises doctor-patient conversations in real-time.  The application is being progressively rolled out to SingHealth’s institutes currently.

In a previous article by GovInsider, Synapxe’s Director of Data aNalytics and AI, and Chief Data Officer, Andy Ta, shared that as the tool is hosted on Tandem, it can be deployed by other public healthcare entities as well.

Another live tool featured at the launch was In-SYNc, an AI-assistant that Synapxe staff can use to quickly retrieve company information, such as policies and procedures.

Other platforms showcased at the launch included HEALIX, a cloud-based analytics platform that connects existing public health data infrastructures to support data sharing and discovery.

The platform provides a repository of up-to-date and consistent data, as well as a range of tools for developing AI models, such as pre-built algorithms and libraries.

Securing innovation

Synapxe is seeking to ensure these innovation efforts are secure through these initiatives, which are designed to be consistent with government regulations.

For instance, HEALIX is hosted on the Government Commercial Cloud and Healthcare Commercial Cloud, which enable agencies to adopt commercial cloud services through secure cloud platforms that are consistent with government data security frameworks.

These include encryption techniques and multi-level access controls.

During the launch, Synapxe also showcased the agency’s new Healthcare Integrated Operations (HITOps) centre. The centre integrates IT infrastructure, applications, and cybersecurity operations across the public healthcare landscape in a single location, targeting to improve response time to IT or cyber incidents.

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Supporting public health innovation

According to the release, Terrarium will complement the efforts of HealthX, Synapxe’s “ecosystem of enablers” which aims to make it easier for private sector players to develop healthcare solutions for the public health sector.

These enablers include the HealthTech Advisory Centre, the HealthX Call-for-Innovation, and Outcome-Based Spiral Contracting Framework.

For instance, health startup SoundEye and eldercare facility operator Singapore Christian Home (SCH) tapped on HealthX to develop a contactless mobile device that can detect when high-risk senior residents may fall and alert staff to assist them.

Other projects supported by HealthX include Nervotec, a startup that has developed a tool that users can use to measure their blood sugar levels simply by scanning their face with their phone camera.

According to a Synapxe representative, the agency has issued 13 innovation challenge statements and engaged over 200 startups through HealthX events since the launch of HealthX in 2023.

As cybersecurity regulations are more stringent within the public healthcare system, many of these enablers aim to simplify the barriers to entry for startups and industry players, using measures such as an innovation sandbox that provides a safe environment for experimentation and a cybersecurity self-attestation portal.