AI chatbot will help SGH save money, time with pre-surgery assessments
The AI chatbot was soft-launched in December 2024 for the benefit of doctors at SGH's Preoperative Assessment Clinic.
SINGAPORE – An AI chatbot that helps doctors comprehensively assess a patient's health before an operation will save the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) up to 660 hours of doctors' time, which is equivalent to $200,000 in costs annually.
Peach – short for Perioperative AI Chatbot – was soft-launched in December 2024 for the benefit of doctors at SGH's Preoperative Assessment Clinic.
The large language model was developed by the hospital, making use of available resources by Open Government Products – an independent division of the Government Technology Agency (GovTech).
The clinic sees about 120 patients a day, who all have to undergo medical evaluation of their past and current illnesses, medications and allergies, and previous anaesthesia reactions before being scheduled for surgery.
According to a study published earlier in July in the medical journal npj Digital Medicine, which analysed 270 patient assessments done by the AI chatbot between January and February, it reduced documentation time by nearly 6 minutes per patient.
In a media briefing held on July 30 at SGH, Dr Ke Yuhe, associate consultant at SGH's department of anaesthesiology, explained that prior to the roll-out of Peach, doctors had to pore over more than 400 pages of guidelines before coming up with a perioperative plan.
This includes the care a patient will receive before, during, and after a procedure.
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'This can be very overwhelming, especially for new junior doctors. So we wanted to develop this chatbot to reduce their workload in the clinic, so they can focus more on actual clinical interactions with patients,' said Dr Ke, who led the development of Peach.
Dr Ke and the team spent about a month in late 2024 integrating SGH's perioperative guidelines into an AI assistant created by Open Government Products.
Peach is only accessible on hospital-issued encrypted laptops.
With the chatbot, doctors can simply input relevant patient information from electronic health records, and Peach will be able to make suggestions as to what the patient's risk profile is, and what kind of anaesthetic to use in the operating theatre and for how long.
In a study done on the AI chatbot in November 2024, 240 interactions were examined, and it was found that Peach demonstrated about 98 per cent accuracy in making pre-surgery recommendations.
The chatbot can also assist with instructions for patients prior to a surgery, like the fasting time needed and medication instructions. It can also help with the drafting of referra l letters if needed.
Associate Professor Hairil Rizal, senior consultant and clinician scientist at SGH'S department of anaesthesiology, said: 'When you're seeing thousands of pre-surgery patients annually, every minute saved on administrative tasks is a minute gained for patient care.'
As Singapore's population ages, patients will increasingly come with multiple chronic conditions.
Prof Hairil also pointed out that the chatbot is particularly useful in helping junior doctors make sense of more difficult and complex cases.
When the chatbot gives its recommendations, it will also include justifications for its answers, as well as cite the protocols and guidelines it has referenced.
'It's like having a consultant at their fingertips guiding them,' said Prof Hairil, also stressing that doctors are still ultimately responsible for the clinical recommendations made to patients.
SGH is in conversation with other hospitals in the SingHealth cluster – Sengkang General Hospital and KK Women's and Children's Hospital – to roll out the AI chatbot.
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