IHiS, HealthTech Agency for Singapore's Public Healthcare launched its new identity, Synapxe, on 27 July at its 15th Anniversary. The new name Synapxe reflects the growth of its work in both scope and scale in shaping the future of HealthTech in Singapore. 

Synapxe also unveiled their plans under their HealthX platform to accelerate health innovation, as well as upcoming AI-powered health solutions that are being developed for better care and better health. The rebranding event was officiated by the Minister for Health, Mr Ong Ye Kung. 

Ngiam Siew Ying, CEO of Synapxe, said: “As we step into the future to inspire tomorrow’s health, Synapxe will continue to harness the transformative force of smart technologies like generative AI and cloud to power key programmes including Healthier SG, to improve the health of our people and ensure a future-ready health system for Singapore.” 

Furthermore, as part of the anniversary celebrations, Synapxe showcased key milestones in its 15 years of Singapore’s HealthTech journey and the possibilities of technology enablement for tomorrow’s health. Topics in the showcase include citizen engagement, care continuity, data, resilience, innovation and more. 

Technology Enablement of National Healthcare Initiatives 

Together with MOH, Synapxe has been driving the technology development plans to support the implementation of MOH’s Healthier SG initiative. Synapxe worked with public and private sector organisations, in collaboration with GovTech and industry partners, to develop 3 new systems and enhance over 20 existing systems, leading up to the launch of Healthier SG in July. The Healthier SG Open Architecture and creation of the National Health Information Grid enables interoperability and data exchange across the healthcare ecosystem to support comprehensive care at the heart of Healthier SG. 

Accelerating Health Innovation

HealthX was established in January 2023 to accelerate the next generation of health innovation. HealthX aims to foster multi-channels of collaboration amongst Government ministries and agencies, industry technology partners, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders, in the HealthTech space. HealthX will facilitate the rapid development and deployment of technology solutions to address pertinent healthcare challenges of the day, which will fuel the force of transformation for tomorrow’s health. HealthX will reduce common barriers to innovation, whilst maintaining important tenets of the health system where patient safety and cybersecurity are paramount. 

“By harnessing cutting-edge technologies, reducing barriers to health innovation, and fostering collaboration through HealthX, we are paving the way for a future where healthcare is smarter, more accessible, and ultimately, improves the health of millions every day, everywhere,” added CEO Ngiam.

Key HealthX enablers include: 

• HealthTech Advisory Centre, a one-stop center for interested healthcare and technology partners to navigate the innovation pathways for design, development, trials, pilots, deployment and scaling of their solutions in the healthcare ecosystem.
• HealthX Call-for-Innovation, an open innovation platform for experimentation of ideas and solutions in an agile and iterative basis. The platform features challenge statements by business owners with opportunities for co-development of impactful solutions with the technology industry that can revolutionise healthcare.
• HealthX Network of industry partners with innovative technology solutions with potential applications in healthcare. 
• HealthX Co-Innovation Labs where industry partners can provide expertise and work with Synapxe and the public healthcare sector to co-create prototypes, conduct pilots and scale solutions.
• HealthX Innovation Sandbox for fast experimentation and assessment in a secure, self-contained, simulated environment on the Healthcare Commercial Cloud (HCC). 
• Outcome-Based Procurement & Spiral Contracting Framework to enhance speed to market for successful innovations. 
• Cybersecurity Self-Attestation Portal for innovators to learn and self-attest their products against the public healthcare infrastructure and cybersecurity requirements via AI tools and chatbots (To be made available later this year).

Supporting Better Health and Better Care through AI

Synapxe has been at the forefront of applying advanced deep learning and AI capabilities in healthcare. 

To support GPs in discovering personalised insights on their patients’ health, Synapxe developed the nation’s first Assisted Chronic Disease Explanation using AI (ACE-AI). This will be piloted by end 2023 with 20 GPs in support of Healthier SG. Using a deep learning algorithm, it identifies risk factors and automates risk calculations to detect early signs and risks of chronic diseases, along with other smart features. This assists doctors with chronic disease management of their patients.

Another first in Singapore, a new platform to accelerate the adoption of AI-powered medical imaging diagnostics, AIM.SG, will enable the rapid development, testing and deployment of imaging AI models. This vendor-neutral platform developed by Synapxe, SingHealth, and NTT Data can support imaging AI models from different sources for various imaging modalities which previously was not possible. AI imaging models automate the analysis of medical images with speed and accuracy, enabling more efficient triaging of patients with urgent care needs, and helps radiologists more efficiently generate radiology reports with accuracy. This not only helps to improve the quality of clinician diagnoses, it can also reduce unnecessary tests and procedures. This platform will be piloted at Changi General Hospital and Singapore General Hospital before potential implementation at other healthcare institutions.

Augmented Video Analytics for Medication Adherence (AV-MED) is a prototype co-developed with the National Healthcare Group Polyclinics. At its early experimental stage, AV-MED aims to help improve medication adherence amongst patients. This is envisioned through deploying object detection AI modelling and video analytics to capture the patient’s consumption of medication. In future, Synapxe can adapt the technology to support use cases in other care settings such as home care and chronic or infectious disease treatment.