Strategic partnership inked to accelerate integration of AI-powered solutions into clinical care, to strengthen Singapore’s healthcare transformation
7 July 2022
Singapore is facing a rapidly ageing population with an increasing burden of chronic disease. To address the constantly evolving healthcare challenges, greater emphasis has been placed on healthcare innovation. This has paved the way for the adoption of innovative technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) as an enabler for healthcare transformation.
Since 2021, TTSH and ASUS have been collaborating on novel AI solutions to improve patient care delivery and clinical outcomes. One such tool is Blade, an AI-powered software created by medical professionals from TTSH and software engineers from ASUS, aimed at automating peripheral blood cell identification in the laboratory setting, leading to faster and more accurate diagnosis and intervention.
Traditionally, peripheral blood film is reviewed by light microscopy. A laboratory technologist examines a blood film with a microscope and performs a manual cell count. This process is labour intensive and can be subject to human fatigue. Films with abnormal features or unclear diagnosis are then escalated to a reference laboratory or haematologist for review.
With Blade, the process of blood cell identification is automated and classified with higher accuracy. The new method allows a laboratory technologist to load multiple blood films into a digital slide scanner. The scanner will scan and convert the blood films into digital images. The AI tool will then process and analyse the digitised blood films, flagging any critical blood films like leukaemia, thus allowing for early clinical intervention.
By assisting laboratory technologists and haematologists with the reporting of peripheral blood films, Blade aims to reduce the overall blood film review duration by 50%, translating into better laboratory productivity and improved health outcomes for patients.
A large dataset of 337,700 digital images of peripheral blood cells was used to develop the AI-powered software through deep learning and computer vision, with a white blood cell classification accuracy of 91.4%.
"A partnership between Healthcare (TTSH) and Industry (ASUS) can only be truly successful when the elements of mutual benefit and the value-adding of patient care are conspicuously present. What motivates our team of clinicians, laboratory technologists, and software engineers in this collaboration is our hope that patients will benefit from this," said Dr Eugene Fan, Consultant, Department of Haematology, TTSH.
"We believe that this advancement would help not only in the faster and accurate diagnosis of blood disorders but also in directing to appropriate timely management of the patients and helping to reduce the number of other investigations thus cutting down the costs," shared A/Professor Ponnudurai Kuperan, Emeritus Consultant, Department of Haematology, TTSH.
Blade is presently being evaluated at TTSH and other collaborative sites. It is undergoing clinical trials and planned for regulatory approval. The team hopes to evaluate the tool in the community setting, with Hougang Polyclinic planned as the first pilot site in the second half of 2022 for telemedicine purposes, where complex slides can be digitalised and interpreted by a haematologist or a senior medical technologist at TTSH.
Beyond this, ASUS and TTSH see potential in jointly developing AI-based laboratory solutions for pathology, cytology, and microbiology.
Formalising strategic partnership with ASUS
TTSH and ASUS inked a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) earlier today to formalise their collaborative efforts on building a more robust healthcare system to meet the evolving needs of patients. The partnership seeks to co-develop novel AI-based solutions and explore opportunities in biomedical science to enhance the value of clinical care delivered to patients. Beyond Blade, other exciting projects that target breast screening and colon cancer detection are also in the works.
ASUS has a long-standing commitment to involve industry leaders in the development of medical solutions. "The ever-growing Singapore-based ASUS Intelligent Cloud Service (AICS) team is dedicated to share its technological expertise with TTSH to break barriers and make a difference for patients and healthcare providers in Singapore," said Dr Tai-Yi Huang, Corporate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, ASUS.
As TTSH innovates to support our nation's transformational shift towards Healthier SG, the adoption of new technologies such as AI will enable us to reinvent our practice, to improve care and outcomes in our hospital and the community. This strategic partnership serves to connect our clinician innovators with ASUS' engineers so that they can translate ideas to practice, by developing and trialling new solutions which address real-world problems," - A/Prof Tan Cher Heng, Assistant Chairman Medical Board (Clinical Research and Innovation), TTSH.