With new AI tool, SGH can detect brain bleeding from CT scans in a few minutes
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The analysis of CT brain scans has been made faster and easier with the use of AI, said senior consultant Sarat Kumar Sanamandra from the neuroradiology department of Singapore General Hospital and National Neuroscience Institute.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
- Singapore General Hospital (SGH) has launched iScreen, an AI tool that analyses brain CT scans in about six minutes to detect intracranial bleeding faster than the usual 30 minutes to an hour.
- iScreen alerts neuroradiologists and doctors instantly via SMS for quicker review and intervention, reducing reporting delays and improving patient outcomes in urgent brain bleed cases.
- Developed with local startup Iota MedTech and integrated on the national AimSG platform, iScreen supports radiologists and is planned for wider adoption across Singapore public hospitals.
AI generated
SINGAPORE – A new artificial intelligence tool co-developed by Singapore General Hospital (SGH) can detect brain bleeding from scans in about six minutes, instead of the 30 minutes to an hour that radiologists at the hospital need for urgent cases.
The AI model named iScreen analyses the computed tomography (CT) scans and picks up white spots which signal bleeding in the brain, and locations of bleeding which might have more severe impact on the patient.
Acute cases may need surgery to stop the bleeding.
“Reduced reporting time can really make the difference between life and death, or between a full recovery and lasting disability,” said senior consultant Robert Chen, head of the neuroradiology department at SGH and National Neuroscience Institute.
Once the AI model flags a positive result, an SMS will be sent to both the neuroradiologist and attending doctor, said senior consultant Sarat Kumar Sanamandra, who is from the same department.
This will nudge the neuroradiologist to prioritise reviewing the AI results of that patient, ahead of all other scans in the queue.
For cases assessed to be patients with haemorrhage, the radiologist will report the case to the attending doctor.
SGH’s data on 3,475 CT brain scans in November and December 2025 showed that the sensitivity of iScreen is 93.1 per cent.
This means that 6.9 per cent of the cases flagged as positive for bleeding turned out to be false positives.
The hospital’s data also showed that the proportion of bleeding cases that took more than an hour to be reported dropped from 14.6 per cent to 5 per cent with the use of iScreen.
Sarat emphasised that the use of AI is meant to support its radiologists, rather than replace them. SGH has about 100 radiologists, of whom 21 are neuroradiologists.
The hospital deals with thousands of scans each day, of which about 50 are head CT scans, and about 10 per cent of these show signs of bleeding.
There is no limit to the number of scans that iScreen can process concurrently.
Scans that are picked up as positive for bleeding in the brain, or intracranial haemorrhage (ICH), by the AI tool would be clearly marked as “ICH positive”, whereas other scans will not show a reading.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
Bleeding in the brain, also known as intracranial haemorrhage, can happen in those who suffer strokes, or experience a rupture of an aneurysm (bulge in the blood vessel) and tumours.
Traumatic head injury can also lead to brain bleeding, especially for seniors or those on certain blood-thinning medications.
Such patients could start to bleed in the brain, even with minor physical impact, such as the head knocking against the door or slipping and falling.
Robert Chen (left), head of the neuroradiology department at Singapore General Hospital and National Neuroscience Institute, reviewing the AI results and CT scans of patients with Sarat Kumar Sanamandra, senior consultant at the same department.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
Local start-up Iota MedTech began its collaboration with NNI and SGH since 2019 to develop the AI model.
Justin Ker, a consultant with the NNI’s neurosurgery department, said the model stemmed from his trainee days when he looked into possible ways to scale the precious resources involved in brain surgical procedures to help more patients.
“Timely interventions to these cases will determine how long the patient will stay in intensive care, in the hospital, and when he or she can return to work”, Ker added.
For scans that have been detected as positive for bleeding by the AI model, the system will automatically send an SMS alert to both the radiologist and attending doctor.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
Iota MedTech’s chief executive Benjamin Hong told The Straits Times that it will continue to work with SGH on developing other clinical usage for the AI model.
It is also currently in talks with other public hospitals to use iScreen.
The AI model utilised at Singapore General Hospital could potentially be used for other types of scans.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
The model can be easily implemented in more hospitals as it is deployed on AimSG, the AI-enabled medical imaging platform for Singapore public healthcare.
It is the first AI model for head CT scans on AimSG, which allows different hospitals to switch between AI models on the platform without having to utilise or stick to specific hardware or software.
Several other hospitals and NHG Polyclinics are already using AI models on AimSG for clinical uses such as chest X-rays and thyroid ultrasound scans.
The platform was co-developed by national healthtech agency Synapxe, together with all three public healthcare clusters.
Henry Kang, Synapxe’s director of innovation and capabilities enablement, said that when AI in medical imaging was first introduced, there was a lot of scepticism, and clinicians needed some time to better understand how to work with AI.
“I think we are at the crossroads now... getting comfortable in terms of the use of AI... once that reached a state of comfort, scaling up is just a matter of time,” added Kang.