The arrival of synthetic intelligence (AI) can assist remedy the rising healthcare problem of getting older populations, which many countries are battling, although the standard challenges stay.

Based on Singapore’s Well being Minister Ong Ye Kung, three important developments are converging to make this an unprecedented time for tackling healthcare challenges: AI, genomics, and a shift in focus towards preventive healthcare.

Genomics, or precision medication, tailors healthcare to an individual’s distinctive genes and surroundings, permitting for extra correct remedy or preventive measures. On the identical time, generative AI (gen AI) opens up alternatives to boost the analysis and remedy of ailments, Ong mentioned at a hearth chat throughout ST Engineering’s InnoTech.Healthcare convention this week.

Per the World Well being Group, one in six individuals worldwide shall be aged 60 years and above by 2030 — accounting for 1.4 billion of the worldwide inhabitants. By 2050, that quantity will double to 2.1 billion, and the variety of individuals aged 80 years and older is projected to succeed in 426 million. 

By 2050, two-thirds of the inhabitants aged 60 and above can even stay in low- and middle-income nations.

Ong famous that getting older drives a number of developments in healthcare as a result of it correlates with larger illness load and diseases and contributes to escalating healthcare prices, not only for sufferers but additionally governments and nations. 

International locations like Singapore are working to make sure they’ll deal with their getting older populations. Since getting older is inevitable, Ong thinks the nation ought to concentrate on preventive measures and tapping know-how.

Knowledge coupled with AI, as an illustration, can present helpful insights into which ailments sure people are vulnerable to and supply the required preventive care, Ong mentioned. He added that knowledge needs to be stripped of personally identifiable data (PII) and anonymized.  

Singapore is at the moment working to make sure it has the infrastructure in place to help such initiatives, together with a typical digital medical document (EMR) platform that each one healthcare service suppliers, together with hospitals and personal clinics, can entry. Ong mentioned this can require GPs (common practitioners) to contribute affected person knowledge to the centralized knowledge platform. 

He famous that laws should be in place to mandate such necessities whereas safeguarding the information. 

Singapore has proposed a Well being Info Invoice that the nation says supplies the framework to “govern the protected assortment, entry, use, and sharing of well being data” throughout its healthcare ecosystem. Whereas the nation’s EMR was established in 2011 as a centralized well being knowledge repository, it’s primarily utilized by public healthcare establishments. Participation by non-public suppliers is voluntary — simply 15% of them participated in its use as of October 2023, in keeping with Singapore’s well being ministry. 

Ong mentioned there isn’t any single holistic profile of a person’s well being data, as knowledge is fragmented and scattered throughout totally different suppliers. The well being ministry says the nationwide EHR system would solely require key well being data, akin to analysis, drugs, allergic reactions, and laboratory experiences. Suppliers could be allowed entry to sufferers’ abstract medical data which might be related and required for them to offer care.

The proposed invoice, which is scheduled to be learn in parliament subsequent week, would mandate that each one licensed healthcare suppliers contribute knowledge to the digital well being repository. It additionally lays out a set of cybersecurity and knowledge safety necessities that healthcare suppliers contributing to or accessing the information platform should meet. This consists of reporting cybersecurity incidents and knowledge breaches, akin to unauthorized entry. 

Ong famous that strong knowledge administration is a key concern, and additional safeguards shall be essential with the emergence of genomics and AI. As an illustration, he mentioned that contemplating genomics data in hiring selections will create moral points, including that its use in underwriting life insurance coverage insurance policies has additionally been outlawed in some jurisdictions. 

For Ong, public belief in using AI for healthcare will depend upon there being controls in place to handle these issues. 

Addressing the deepfake drawback

Deepfakes additionally popped up in discussions on the convention as an AI threat. Singapore’s Senior Minister of State within the Prime Minister’s Workplace Desmond Tan famous that deepfakes can’t be ignored as cybercriminals more and more flip to superior AI instruments of their assaults.

Throughout his speech on the convention’s primary observe, InnoTech.AI, Tan talked about how scammers can create reasonable deepfake movies with just some pictures and a brief audio clip pulled from the web or social media platforms.

He mentioned deepfake content material in Singapore climbed 500% final 12 months in comparison with 2022, noting that such dangers should be addressed so AI might be harnessed for its advantages, akin to facilitating the early detection of ailments. 

ST Engineering is hoping to assist organizations do this with the launch of its Einstein.AI platform. Einstein.AI is designed to validate the authenticity of content material by fact-checking and detecting audio and video deepfakes.

The software program analyzes the transcript of the content material and fact-checks the data towards established information platforms or some other media companies that clients select. It additionally runs stance and sentiment analyses to establish any potential hate speech within the content material. 

ST Engineering mentioned that organizations working the Einstein.AI platform can doubtlessly set parameters for these checks. 

The AI platform doesn’t conduct facial recognition and, subsequently, can not authenticate the id of a person. Reasonably, it searches for patterns to assist decide if the content material itself is artificial or has been manipulated. 

Developed in-house, ST Engineering skilled Einstein.AI by feeding it video and audio clips of people with corresponding deep faux twins to establish the nuances between them. 

ST Engineering is at the moment submitting analysis proposals to associate with larger schooling institutes on analysis initiatives to enhance its deepfake detection capabilities, which may then be embedded into Einstein.AI. 

The seller added that additionally it is open to tapping different AI fashions through business partnerships to additional complement the platform.