On its 15th anniversary, Integrated Health Information Systems, Singapore's national health tech agency, rebranded to Synapxe. 

Since 2008, the agency has been designing, developing, and implementing IT solutions that support the operations of 46 public healthcare institutions and over 70,000 healthcare workers. It also manages about 600 health IT systems and more than 80,000 end-point devices.

WHY IT MATTERS

As its new identity suggests, the agency acts like a "connector" that enables the flow of information within the health ecosystem. It also has a renewed focus to accelerate the development and deployment of next-generation health technologies that will exponentially improve health outcomes.

"The intentional spelling of 'Synapxe' with an 'x' represents the multiplier effect, signifying how we accelerate the next generation of health innovations that lead to a significant leap forward with exponential outcomes," it explained in a statement.

Meanwhile, Synapxe is launching new AI-powered health solutions. One of them, the ACE-AI (Assisted Chronic Disease Explanation using AI), will be piloted with 20 GPs by yearend. The AI tool identifies risk factors and automates risk calculations to detect early signs and risks of chronic diseases. 

Another solution, AIM.SG, is a vendor-neutral platform that enables the rapid development, testing, and deployment of AI imaging models. Co-developed with SingHealth and NTT Data, the technology will be piloted at Changi General Hospital and Singapore General Hospital.

The agency is also working with the National Healthcare Group Polyclinics for a project that will help improve patients' medication adherence. Currently at its early experimental stage, the AV-MED (Augmented Video Analytics for Medication Adherence) uses object detection AI modelling and video analytics to capture patients' medicine intake. 

THE LARGER TREND

Earlier this year, then-iHIS launched HealthX, its platform for fostering collaborations and facilitating expeditious development and deployment of innovative technology solutions. 

Synapxe is also the driving force of technology development that powers the Ministry of Health's national preventive healthcare programme, Healthier SG, which was formally launched in July. It was behind the creation of the Healthier SG Open Architecture and National Health Information Grid which enables interoperability and data exchange across the healthcare ecosystem.

The agency also announced recent global partnerships. It recently tied up with Google Cloud and Accenture to deploy the API management platform, Apigee, which provides third-party developers access to data and services of Synapxe's managed systems to create new applications. 

It also expanded its partnership with Microsoft to develop smart applications with generative AI. 

ON THE RECORD

"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," said Synapxe CEO Ngiam Siew Ying.