SGH’s AI tool wins international award for improving antibiotic use

Singapore, 29 October 2026 - Singapore General Hospital (SGH) has won the Silver Award in the Dr Prathap C Reddy Excellence Award for Clinical Quality and Patient Safety at the International Hospital Federation (IHF) Awards 2026, for its Augmented Intelligence in Infectious Diseases (AI2D). It is an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that helps doctors determine whether patients need antibiotics.

The award was presented on 21 October 2026 at the 49th IHF World Hospital Congress in Seoul, Republic of Korea. AI2D was also a top-scoring innovation at the IHF i-to-i Innovation Hub 2026.

This year, the IHF Awards received more than 750 entries from 38 countries and territories. AI2D was one of eight finalists in its category, alongside hospitals from Indonesia, Italy, Oman, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Saudi Arabia.

AI²D was developed by a team led by both Associate Professor Andrea Kwa, Deputy Director, Pharmacy (Research and Innovation), SGH, and Ms Sarah Tang, Specialist (Infectious Diseases) Pharmacist, SGH, consisting of collaborators from SGH’s Infectious Diseases department, alongside DXC Technology and Synapxe. AI²D supports doctors in making earlier, better-informed decisions about antibiotic treatment for patients with pneumonia and other lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) and is also being used in infection control.

“Being recognised by the IHF among entries from around the world is a meaningful endorsement of the work our multidisciplinary team has undertaken over several years. AI²D was built to address the challenge of identifying patients who genuinely need antibiotics and those who do not. By turning routinely collected clinical data into actionable insights, we are helping doctors make better-informed decisions while reducing unnecessary antibiotic use,” said Associate Professor Kwa.

“Antimicrobial resistance is often described as a silent pandemic. AI²D shows how healthcare organisations can harness AI not as a replacement for clinicians, but as a force multiplier that helps us make better decisions for every patient. We are proud that work developed in Singapore is now being recognised on the global stage,” said Associate Professor Loo Chian Min, Chairman, Medical Board, SGH.

About half of SGH’s inpatients are on antibiotics at any one time. Because it can be difficult to determine early whether an infection is bacterial, doctors often start treatment while waiting for test results. Unnecessary antibiotic use can expose patients to side effects and add to antibiotic resistance, making infections harder to treat in future.

Trained on clinician-reviewed data from 18,000 patients, AI2D is 90 per cent accurate in identifying whether patients with pneumonia or LRTIs need antibiotics. It works in the background of existing clinical systems, so doctors do not need to enter any extra information, and complements, not replaces, doctors’ clinical judgement.

AI2D has been in use at SGH for more than a year. SGH’s antimicrobial stewardship team now uses the tool to prioritise cases for review, enabling coverage of all LRTIs cases compared with around 30 per cent previously.

Before AI2D, doctors stepped in to stop antibiotics in about 15 per cent of cases. With AI2D, this has risen to nearly 43 per cent. By screening every case and flagging those that need a closer review, AI2D helps doctors identify patients who may no longer need antibiotics, reducing unnecessary treatment while helping preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics.