Google expands healthcare AI push with Singapore research hub

Google plans to strengthen its collaborations with public healthcare organizations in Singapore, with the establishment of a new research hub in the city-state. At the inaugural Google for Health Summit, Google executives revealed a population health digital transformation program in partnership with Singapore’s National Healthcare Group (NHG).

This program intends to enhance preventive healthcare efforts through AI-driven predictive insights. Ben King, Google’s country managing director in Singapore, stated that the company aims to develop healthcare AI technologies locally for eventual global deployment. Leveraging Singapore’s world-class health institutions and talent, the firm aims to create a resilient, future-ready healthcare system.

The population health program will combine NHG’s de-identified population health database with Google’s geospatial tooling, using climate and environmental data, search, and behavioural signals to forecast health risks like chronic diseases and frailty. Google DeepMind will collaborate with the National University Health System to test and evaluate the global AI co-clinician initiative, assessing the AI’s accuracy, safety, and usefulness against established clinical criteria.

Tan Kiat How, senior minister of state for health and digital development and information, highlighted that the initiative will move care beyond hospitals into communities and homes, emphasizing that AI's greatest value lies in enabling care that was previously difficult to deliver at scale. The partnerships align with the national AI partnership with Google, which aims to deploy frontier AI models to address societal challenges.

Dr Yossi Matias, Google’s vice-president and general manager of Google Research, announced the opening of a new Singapore research hub that will work with Google’s global teams and local universities to improve the efficiency of frontier AI models and nurture research talent.