AI becomes a non-starter in healthcare if there is inherent distrust in its use: Ong Ye Kung

06/08/2026 3 Views

SINGAPORE – Use of artificial intelligence will be doomed to fail if there is inherent distrust that forces healthcare institutions to seek patient consent for every piece of data, even anonymised ones, to train systems, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung.

Speaking in Parliament on Aug 5, Ong added: “It becomes a non-starter.”

He was replying to questions from Non-Constituency MP Andre Low on whether consent would be sought before using patient data to develop the Singapore Medical Foundation AI Model (SIMFONI), and what patient data would be used.

Announced on July 9, SIMFONI aims to help clinicians better diagnose conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol and eye diseases by addressing a gap in the data used for AI training.

Most AI models used in healthcare today are trained on data from Western populations, which can limit the accuracy and relevance in Singapore’s clinical settings.

Ong warned against distrusting the system entirely, urging a balanced approach and recognition that AI is a breakthrough technology that can address some of Singapore’s stark challenges of an ageing population with a rising patient load.

“To do so, we will need to use the data that we have, but take the necessary precautions. Make sure that it’s anonymised and de-identified. And we started this process some years ago,” he said, adding that there have been no data leaks so far.

“If we start off thinking that we distrust this system entirely, and therefore, let’s scope down the data to be used to train models, let’s not believe that they can really be anonymised and de-identified because there can be leaks and traceability, and let’s seek everyone’s consent before we can use, it becomes a non-starter,” Ong told the House on Aug 5.

He said SIMFONI aims to develop AI tools to provide clinical decision support for managing chronic conditions, prioritising conditions with high disease burden in Singapore and feasibility of development.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) will start with a couple of speciality areas and settings in the public healthcare sector, and if that is successful, the coverage will be expanded to more speciality areas, and also possibly, to private practitioners.

Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang) asked whether MOH will announce specific safeguards to detect and mitigate the risk of automation bias, when doctors may gradually defer to AI decisions or recommendations.

Ong said MOH takes a careful user approach in the deployment of AI, warning against the current hype.

“Never treat AI as a hammer going around looking for nails… or a solution looking for a problem,” he said, adding that the technology also needs to take into account the local context and medical protocols here.

“When you deploy it, you have to deploy in accordance to clinical protocols.”

Finally, AI is also not something that users plug into a socket, he said.

Thought must be given to integration with existing systems and workflows to allow clinicians to make the final judgment.

“It’s early days… all this hype will subside to a more realistic level, where people are more judicious, thoughtful and even sober about using AI,” said Ong.

“And we tell ourselves, why wait for that process? Why don’t we start off being sober and judicious? And that’s the approach that MOH is taking.”

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