Innovative AI tools and strategic capability building enhance patient care and operational efficiency.
At the Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards 2025, the National University Hospital (NUH)’s Kent Ridge Office of Innovation (KROI) bagged two awards, namely Team of the Year – Healthcare and Innovator of the Year – Healthcare. This is in recognition of the department’s role in transforming care delivery through capability building, strategic partnerships, and AI-driven solutions.
Formed in April 2024, KROI has trained over 3,000 staff, developed tools including MedBot and ED Summarizer, and led the rollout of innovations such as MediVoice, Bot-NUHS, and AI-powered medical search engine.
These initiatives streamlined documentation, enhanced administrative support, and promoted evidence-based clinical practice, underscoring NUH’s position as a leader in patient-centred healthcare innovation, which is aligned with Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0 and Smart Nation 2.0 vision.
Central to KROI’s success is the nurturing of an Incredible Care culture for patients and staff, championed by CEO Professor Aymeric Lim. KROI is co-chaired by Ms Sandy Ho and Dr Ian Mathews, with Dr Ling Zheng Jye serving as Chief Medical Informatics Officer.
The team’s multi-pronged strategy includes Ascend for building innovation capabilities, Forge for developing strategic partnerships with industry players, and Nexus, an innovation sandbox for rapid prototyping and safe validation. This approach fosters experimentation, collaboration, and scalable innovation, whilst facilitating the adoption of new technologies within the organisation.
For example, the ED Summarizer, developed by KROI, addresses the challenge of excessive documentation in the Emergency Department. By consolidating diagnoses, treatments, investigations, and clinical notes into coherent reports and integrating seamlessly with the hospital’s Epic system, the tool saves 22-45 hours daily. With daily cost reductions of $4,200 to $8,500, which translate to projected annual savings of $1.53m to $3.10m, the ED Summarizer enables clinicians to devote more time to patient care, thereby improving workflow efficiency, reducing waiting times, and enhancing the doctor-patient relationship.
Additionally, other innovations like MedBot further support operational efficiency by saving 150 hours monthly in the pharmacy department’s workflows, translating to $107,000 in annual savings. Through these tools, KROI demonstrates how strategic technology implementation can enhance healthcare delivery whilst maintaining clinical rigour and safety, positioning NUH as a model for healthcare innovation in Singapore and beyond.
The Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards honours visionary executives, innovators, and high-performing teams, as well as initiatives that champion diversity, inclusion, employee engagement, and workplace well-being.
The Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards is presented by Singapore Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to know more about the awards programme, you may contact Julie Anne Nuñez-Difuntorum at (+65) 3158 1386 ext. 221 or [email protected].
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