The National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) is set to launch a year-long pilot of an artificial intelligence (AI) system across three public hospitals, aiming to dramatically cut the time needed to analyze cardiac scans and accelerate the diagnosis of coronary artery disease.

The AI tool, known as the Singapore Heart Lesion Analyzer, will begin clinical trials in the third quarter of 2025. According to NHCS senior consultant Dr. Lohendran Baskaran, the system is capable of interpreting cardiac imaging scans and assessing the risk of coronary artery disease in under 10 minutes, a process that currently takes between two to four hours for radiographers and cardiologists.

“In controlled settings, the AI has shown accuracy rates ranging from 85 to 99 percent,” said Dr. Baskaran at a media briefing on Tuesday. “The upcoming trial will evaluate its effectiveness and reliability in real-world clinical environments.”

The initiative comes as Singapore continues to battle high rates of heart-related illnesses. Coronary artery disease remains the leading cause of cardiovascular deaths in the country. In 2023 alone, 8,311 deaths were attributed to cardiovascular disease, nearly 30 percent of all fatalities that year, according to local media reports.

The AI pilot program is part of a broader push to integrate advanced technologies into healthcare, with the goal of improving patient outcomes and optimizing medical workflows.