TESTING AND SAFEGUARDS FOR SINGAPORE MEDICAL FOUNDATION AI MODEL (SIMFONI) INITIATIVE

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1110

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 05 AUGUST 2026

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Yip Hon Weng

MP for Yio Chu Kang GRC

Question No. 2611

To ask the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health regarding the Singapore Medical Foundation AI Model (SIMFONI) initiative (a) what are the rationale and cost of developing AI models for conditions that can be diagnosed by routine tests, instead of targeting rare diseases that are harder to diagnose; (b) how will clinicians access SIMFONI and whether private practitioners will be included; and (c) what safeguards protect patient identifiers from data leaks.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1127

NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER

FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON OR AFTER 05 AUGUST 2026

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Low Wu Yang Andre

Non-Constituency MP

Question No. 2663

To ask the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) before the deployment of Singapore Medical Foundation AI Model (SIMFONI), whether the Ministry will subject its models to privacy testing by assessors independent of the developers to determine if they can memorise or reproduce identifiable patient information; and (b) whether test standards, findings and response protocol for any disclosure will be published.

Answer

1 Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to answer Questions 4 and 5 together?

2 SIMFONI develops AI tools to provide clinical decision support for managing chronic conditions, prioritising conditions with high disease burden in Singapore and the feasibility of development.

3 We are starting with a couple of specialty areas and settings in the public healthcare sector. If successful, we will expand its coverage, to more specialties, and also possibly to the private practitioners.

4 SIMFONI's models are built on existing models trained using international data. They are adapted using local patient data that are de-identified, in a secure national platform with well-established processes, expertise and safeguards. This platform, called TRUST, was established in 2022 precisely for research, development and innovation efforts. To further ensure the integrity of this process, an independent Safety and Evaluation unit will carry out rigorous testing of SIMFONI's models before actual deployment.