Google and Singapore deepen partnership to scale health AI

At the inaugural Google for Health Summit in Singapore on 29 October 2026, Google outlined a multi-pronged expansion of its health AI work with the Singapore Government, building on the National AI Partnership established in May. The announcements span three fronts: advancing frontiers in health research, transforming care delivery for clinicians, and elevating population health for Singaporeans. Mr Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Digital Development and Information and the Ministry of Health, attended as Guest of Honour.

The expanded collaboration brings together clinicians, researchers, and public agencies to address national health priorities while positioning Singapore as a regional launchpad for scalable, real-world health AI deployments.

A New Research Hub and Open Models for the Front Line

Google Research is establishing a presence in Singapore with a new research hub staffed by local research scientists and software engineers. The team will operate alongside Google's global research organisation on two priorities: advancing foundational AI efficiency, a stated high-priority area for generative AI, and cultivating local scientific talent through partnerships with the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

The hub will also scale existing health research initiatives in the country, including the application of open models such as MedGemma to frontline care settings. The intent is to enable the local healthcare ecosystem to develop secure, customised solutions while maintaining full data sovereignty.

Singapore brings together world-class research institutions, a forward-looking national AI strategy and a healthcare system ready to put AI to work. Our new Google Research team here will focus on making frontier AI more efficient and easier to deploy, while partnering with Academia to nurture the next generation of scientific leaders. Working with the local ecosystem, we'll also bring open models like MedGemma into real-world care, helping solve pressing global health challenges.

Separately, Google.org and Google DeepMind have joined the Philanthropy Asia Alliance's (PAA) Health for Human Potential Coalition with a funding contribution of $7 million. Of that commitment, $1 million from PAA will support PathGen, an AI-enabled public health intelligence platform developed through the Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative and designed to help countries detect, understand and respond to communicable disease threats faster and more securely. The funding will advance PathGen's research into genomic embeddings — compact AI representations that let genomic data be shared for public health intelligence while protecting in-country data sovereignty.

Clinical Decision Support and Workforce Skilling

Google DeepMind is working with the National University Health System (NUHS) to initiate trusted tester evaluations as part of its global AI co-clinician research initiative. The collaboration will evaluate the AI co-clinician as a clinician-facing decision-support tool in routine outpatient practice, assisting doctors with clinical queries by synthesising information from existing clinical guidelines and medical literature. The study will assess the accuracy, safety and usefulness of the AI's responses through independent evaluation by clinicians against established clinical criteria.

Complementing the clinical research, Google is expanding its Google Career Certificates portfolio with the Google AI for Healthcare Professionals Certificate, an online programme equipping healthcare workers to use AI for administrative tasks and continuous learning. Google will roll out the certificate through its established scholarship partners and explore new local healthcare collaborations.

Population-Scale Predictive Health with NHG Health

Google Cloud and NHG Health are collaborating on a first-of-its-kind Population Health Digital Transformation Programme that uses AI-driven predictive insights to advance Singapore's preventative healthcare efforts at scale. The programme rests on two integrated technological pillars.

The first is a predictive model that combines NHG Health's de-identified population health database with Google's geospatial tooling and solutions aggregating non-personally identifiable spatial-temporal data such as climate, environmental, search and behavioural signals. The engine forecasts health risks, including chronic diseases and frailty, at a granular sub-population level.

The second is an AI-enabled Health Coach that delivers contextual lifestyle advice and preventive guidance directly to residents through the NHG HealthBot, leveraging Google's Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience (GECX) platform. Continuous, anonymised interactions refine the predictive models over time, creating a self-improving health ecosystem. The Health Coach initiative will focus on two preventive health use cases — screening uptake and frailty prevention — with a longer-term aspiration to integrate with national health platforms.

Good health is made beyond healthcare. With Healthier SG, Age Well SG and Grow Well SG, Singapore has been shifting from reactive, episodic treatment to proactive prevention before illnesses escalate. NHG Health is excited to partner Google on this first-of-its-kind solution to help drive preventive health. By bringing data and intelligence together, we can better understand the individual residents behind the data, reach them earlier, and turn every interaction into a personalised and targeted opportunity to help residents in Central and North Singapore take charge of their health with good outcomes. We hope this collaboration will accelerate our vision of Adding Years of Healthy Life for our residents.

Regional Significance and Public-Health Continuity

The announcements extend Google's ongoing work in Singapore on public-good technology. Previously announced initiatives include the development of a Gemma Running Agent with SGEnable to support blind and low-vision runners, a partnership with healthtech startup AMILI on a precision nutrition programme, and the expansion of the Debug facility in Singapore to combat dengue as part of the National Environment Agency's Project Wolbachia.

The true power of AI lies in solving complex societal challenges, and there is no area more critical, personal and ripe for advancement than healthcare. With Singapore's rapidly aging population, we see tremendous potential for this technology to accelerate medical breakthroughs and support clinicians on the frontline to help citizens live longer, healthier lives. By pairing our technical expertise with Singapore's world-class health institutions and talent, we can build a resilient, future-ready healthcare system together and scale these innovations from Singapore to the world.