The Integrated Health Information Systems, Singapore's national health technology agency, has taken its partnership with Microsoft to a new level by coming into a new collaboration focusing on generative AI and cloud. 

In their recently signed memorandum of understanding, the organisations agreed to use Azure and security technologies to optimise, automate, and modernise public healthcare IT and security infrastructure at scale; use Microsoft 365 on Cloud to enable greater collaboration; and use Microsoft Azure Intelligent Data Platform and Azure OpenAI Service to build smart applications with generative AI. 

They will also be collaborating on projects throughout the entire innovation lifecycle, from ideation to scaling and change management. Cross-learning opportunities are another key aspect of their MOU. 

WHY IT MATTERS

One of the significant projects that IHiS and Microsoft will be working on is the development of a GPT-based platform to automate tasks and transform clinician workflows. 

Based on a media release, Secure GPT for Healthcare Professionals is a custom-built platform using Azure OpenAI Service that will provide a secure infrastructure for large language model development and will serve as a common platform for accelerating the development of generative AI applications.

Its main functions are allowing healthcare professionals in the public healthcare sector to use ChatGPT securely and supporting developers by building custom apps powered by Azure functionalities and OpenAI models. 

According to IHiS, Secure GPT will be made capable of securely handling PIIs and strengthening the protection of user data.

OpenAI will also be providing it with the ability to generate contextual responses from a dedicated healthcare knowledge base, with security and compliance in alignment with healthcare data residency requirements. For instance, a user can ask about the care protocols for diabetes, then the platform will pull up summarised information from consolidated source documents in the knowledge base. Secure GPT can also be used to generate condensed patient information from doctors’ clinical notes and laboratory reports in the EMR system and track medication changes and usage. 

Moreover, the platform will have the ability to connect with other systems via APIs and generative AI applications interoperability. 

THE LARGER TREND

IHiS and Microsoft most recently collaborated on the Azure-based Discovery Plus, a smart clinician dashboard that was deployed during the pandemic. It enabled COVID-19 patients to submit their vital signs and flagged suspicious findings. As of June this year, the platform has supported over 10,000 patients, collected more than 660,000 vital signs submissions, and given out over 45,000 alerts. 

Early this year, IHiS tied up with Google Cloud and Accenture to advance the development of data-driven applications using Apigee, an API management platform that provides third-party developers access to data and services to create new applications. 

Meanwhile, in March, Microsoft's Nuance Communications revealed a new clinical documentation tool called Dragon Ambient eXperience Express. Based on the OpenAI's latest GPT-4 model, the tool quickly drafts clinical notes from conversations with patients done through telehealth or in person.

San Francisco-based Doximity has leveraged OpenAI's ChatGPT to develop DocsGPT, which aims to help doctors streamline administrative tasks, such as preparing referrals, certificates of medical necessity and prior authorization requests. The app was launched in beta in March.

ON THE RECORD

"This exciting collaboration with Microsoft will transform the way healthcare is delivered to improve the health of millions every day. The intelligent collaboration tools on cloud and AI-powered platforms will not just deliver greater convenience to clinicians, it will enable better focus on patient-centric work and change the way individuals take control of their health and health outcomes", IHiS CEO Ngiam Siew Ying said in a statement. 

"The democratisation of both accessible healthcare and the influence of technology like AI continues to emerge as a priority across government, as well as our customers and partners, as we build a resilient, digitally inclusive Singapore," Microsoft Singapore Managing Director Lee Hui Li also commented.