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Innovation at CGH is a living, collaborative energy that evolves as it flows through teams, building on care, technology and human insight in a continuous loop of improvement.
Artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and digital solutions continuously augment our care workflows and healthcare delivery, value-adding to amplify the care team’s capabilities. While technology quietly enhances operational efficiency, it creates space forthe human touch that fosters healing.
EDi is CGH’s wayfinding robot deployed within the Emergency Department to aid patients and their accompanying next-of-kin.
Following the establishment of the Office ofInnovation in 2012, the hospital’s ecosystem of innovation took a significant step forward in 2015 with the launch of the CGH Centre for Healthcare Assistive & Robotics Technology (CHART). This collaborative platform systematically integrates technology into every corner of care by connecting healthcare professionals with industry experts to co-develop and test new technologies.
Pepper, CGH’s social robot, interacts with patients and leads them in rehabilitation exercises and other activities.
Watch the video below to learn more about our smart care team in the ED!
Robots have changed daily operations beyond the heavy lifting. As the first hospital in Singapore todeploy autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in a sterile environment, CGH introduced a fleet of delivery robots in the operating theatres. These robots transport surgical equipment and sterile items between the Central Sterile Supply Department (CSSD) and CGH operating theatres. Successfully navigating the hospital campus autonomously via lifts and automatic doorways, the project marked the start of CGH’s integrated robotics deployment journey and paved the way for the introduction of more AMRs.
In the Emergency Department (ED), MEDi is an AMR that handles medication deliveries from the pharmacy to patient care areas, freeing up almost two hours per day and saving ED nurses from walking more than four kilometres per day to deliver medications.
Robots such as our LINDi (top) and AGVs (bottom) traverse the hospital grounds daily to facilitate deliveries of items and supplies including patient meals and linens.
As Melanie Teo, Senior Pharmacist, ED Pharmacy, describes: “With MEDi, we cut out the step where nurses have to physically come to us to pickup medications. Now, one person prepares the medication, loads it into MEDi, and the job is done.” She recalls how warmly nurses welcomed the robot, often referring to it as their friend. For many, MEDi has become more than a delivery aid – it is their e-colleague who brings visible relief and lifts the atmosphere for those in the ED, making daily work smoother and more manageable.
Azreena Zamree, Senior Engineer, CHART/Care Transformation and Melanie Teo, Senior Pharmacist, ED Pharmacy, collaborated on CGH’s robotic medication delivery aid named MEDi.
Elsewhere, Pepper, a 120-cm social robot, enthusiastically gets seniors to sing along and is programmed to engage patients in physical and cognitive activities. Conducting group activities and rehabilitative therapy for seniors and persons with dementia, Pepper has brought joy to more than 200 participants, enabling staff to spend more time on personal interaction at the bedside.
Pharmacy Smart Interface System (PharmaSIS), Outpatient Pharmacy Automation System (OPAS) and Inpatient Pharmacy Automation System (IPAS)are a trio of smart pharmacy systems redefining howmedicines are prepared and delivered to patients. PharmaSIS is Singapore’s first vending machine that allows the purchase of pharmacy-only medicines for minor ailments via a tele-consult. Patients can interact with a pharmacist, receive advice, and get their medicines instantly. Meanwhile, IPAS and OPAS work efficiently in the background, automating the packing of medicines in inpatient and outpatient settings with speed and precision, and contributing to improved medication safety and increased efficiency.
Just like each robot becomes an integral member of the care team, every newsmart solution, too, has the potential tobecome a living system that grows with its users. This philosophy takes shape, for instance, in Ward 45, a dedicated living laboratory for healthcare innovations. Here, technologies like robots and automation systems are tested in a real ward environment, immersed in the daily rhythm of patient care.
Robots are not only judged on their technical performance, but also for their human-centred design and how well they fit into the realities of clinical workflows, ease staff effort, and preserve the human connection. By observing robots in authentic working environments, engineers refine everything from navigation paths to user interfaces, ensuring the system works intuitively for the care team and technicians.
Click below to find out what the robots do!
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AN ENGINEER WHO BUILDS THE PROVERBIAL BRIDGE
Azreena Zamree
Senior Engineer, CHART/Care Transformation
Azreena Zamree, Senior Engineer, CHART/Care Transformation, poses with the trio of ED robots - one of her most memorable robotic projects at CGH.
After discovering an opportunity to address repetitive, manual tasks in the ED, Azreena and her CHART colleagues collaborated with a multidisciplinary team of nurses, pharmacy staff, operations personnel and service ambassadors to ideate a robotic solution. In 2023, the team successfully introduced EDi, MEDiand BLANKi to help with wayfinding, medication and blanket deliveries, freeing the ED care team from the interruptions of such tasks and allowing them to better focus on emergency patient care. “I go to the ED often to see the trio of ED robots. I walk the ground, talk to end users, learn more about their processes and how care gets delivered, and help to troubleshoot issues directly,” shares Azreena.
As the intermediary between the users and the solution providers, she helps to translate clinical needs into technical requirements, identify suitable technological solutions, and work with the robot manufacturers and vendors to make sure the new workflow functions smoothly. More importantly, she ensures the robots’ user interfaces are intuitive for care team members.
“I am excited that my work goes beyond robotics. Together with my teammates and clinical colleagues, we innovate solutions that transform workflows to empower staff and shape the future of care,” says Azreena.
In May 2022, CHART developed the Robotics Middleware for Healthcare (RoMi-H), a world-first platform that enables robots, building infrastructure, and smart devices in the hospital to communicate and coordinate seamlessly as a team. The Ministry of Health has recognised this as the national integration standard for all public healthcare institutions, which means that RoMi-H has not only transformed how CGH operates, but is now accelerating robotics adoption in healthcare institutions across the country. The same middleware framework hasalso been adopted by government agencies to coordinate robotic automations in office buildings and commercial spaces.
This integration goes beyond convenience. By allowing robots to prioritise intelligently, RoMi-H safeguards workplace safety and efficiency. For instance, a robot delivering life-saving medication will automatically be given right-of-way over a robot transporting linens, thus deconflicting and clearing its route to ensure the fastest possible delivery of critical care to patients.
STERi, the hospital’s AMR for transporting sterile clinical supplies, is a prime example of RoMi-H in action. Making 20 round trips daily between various locations in the specialist outpatient clinics and the CSSD, the robotic solution has cut the time taken for non-nursing staff to distribute supplies by 77%, freeing up over 40 hours per week. STERi also maintains delivery accuracy, eliminates missed trips, and removes the physical strain of moving loads of up to 200kg – improving both staff safety and morale.
Travelling between specialist outpatient clinics, STERi allows our healthcare staff to pick up and offload sterile equipment for use in patient care procedures.
Thanks to RoMi-H, STERi can call elevators, open automated doors, and navigate tight hospital corridors without additional infrastructure or human help. It can even pause its route when another robot is rushing to an emergency, resuming only when the path is clear.
Through RoMi-H’s central coordination, STERi responds seamlessly to the hospital’s ever-changing flow while maintaining its core purpose – like a tree that bends with the wind yet remains firmly rooted. RoMi-H provides the foundation for CGH’s robotics ecosystem to grow. From this base, robotic innovations flourish not as standalone machines, but as trusted team members helping staff focus on what matters most: delivering safe, timely and compassionate care.
The hospital stirs before dawn. In the basement, the robot crew emerge from their charging docks. RoMi-H autonomously delegates tasks, orchestrating elevator bookings and routes. Robots zip around the campus, delivering warm breakfast trays and fresh linens withoutever getting in each other’s way.
In the dementia ward, Pepper, a humanoid social robot, begins a physical therapy session, its friendly gestures drawing smiles and movement from patients. Nurses observe, free to focus on bedside care and other clinical tasks.
STERi, the sterile supply robot, makes its 5th trip of theday. In the past, two staff would push a 200-kg load across the building; now, they use that time for patient prep and care.
An urgent X-ray request comes in. The hospital’s AI-powered chest X-ray system triages the scan in seconds, flagging it for immediate review by the radiology team. Meanwhile, a delivery bot diverts its path to bring needed medication to patients in the ED.
Cleaning robots hum through public areas, methodically sanitising floors after the clinics close forthe day. Down in the CHART offices, engineers review performance data like route times and lift wait logs, and conduct testing on more robots. Adjustments are made before the night shift starts.
Back in the docking bays, robots plug in for the night. The hospital slows, but the network of human machine teamwork never sleeps, ready to do it all again tomorrow – a little better having learnt from the day before.
Through RoMi-H, what started as isolated machines has become a unified system that understands the delicate needs of various teams. By 2025, the same principles that transformed the hospital’s robotics ecosystem were ready to revolutionise something far more complex: human decision-making.
With radiologists previously chronologically reviewing chest X-rays that hold vital clues to a patient’s health, CGH sawan opportunity to streamline the identification of cases that required immediate attention. The solution came not as a replacement for human expertise, but as its perfect complement.
At CGH, the testing of robots for use in patient care, such as walking gait assessments for patients in rehabilitation, is constantly ongoing.
An AI-powered triage system for chestX-rays was introduced, categorising scans as Urgent, Non-urgent or Normal based on X-ray scan abnormalities. Integrated seamlessly into the existing Picture Archiving and Communication System, it required no new training and caused no workflow disruptions. This intelligent prioritisation of urgent cases enhanced diagnostic precision, cut inpatient triage turnaround times by 97%, flagged urgent cases 50% faster, and most importantly, freed radiologists to focus their expertise on where it mattered most.
Learn more about RoMI-H in the video below:
In February 2025, CGH became the first public healthcare institution to join the AI Verify Foundation, created by the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) to promote best practices and standards for AI. Rigorous testing with global digital consulting firm SoftServe revealed that physicians using AI support reached 76% accuracy rate in patient diagnoses. In the case of CGH’s AI-powered chest X-ray system, the AI tool proved 98% accurate in confirming healthy patients, leading to ar evolutionary “human in the parallel loop” model where healthcare professionals work alongside AI rather than simply supervising it.
Our AI & Digital Committee, comprising multidisciplinary team members from across the hospital, is all smiles after a collaborative discussion!
The success of the AI-assisted chest X-ray tool sparked further innovation, and the next breakthrough extended the use of AI into colonoscopy management. Deployed on the PAIR platform (developed by Open Government Products Singapore), the generative AI application summarises colonoscopy and histopathology reports and recommends polyp surveillance according to USMulti-Society Task Force guidelines. Like STERi’s seamless door-opening and elevator-calling, the AI is integrated invisibly into clinical workflows.
What made this development particularly groundbreaking was the rigorous testing approach. The AI systematically evaluates cases by breaking down assessments into smaller, verifiable steps to check if recommendations align with clinical guidelines. This system serves as an independent second reader by flagging irregularities and supporting doctors in making informed clinical decisions.
Robots such as our LINDi (top) and AGVs (bottom) traverse the hospital grounds daily to facilitate deliveries of items and supplies including patient meals and linens.
CGH is now exploring agentic AI – systems capable of autonomously completing complex tasks and merging data from multiple sources. By breaking down information silos, these AI agents will give clinicians comprehensive, context-rich insights for faster, more accurate diagnoses and treatment plans.
These AI innovations at CGH are guided by the hospital’s AI & Digital (AID) Committee, a multidisciplinary team that brings together clinicians, nurses, allied health professionals, administrative staff, data analysts and innovation experts to ensure AI implementations are aligned with clinical needs and maintain the highest standards of patient care.
From robots to AI, CGH’s guiding principle has remained the same: technology should seek to augment the care team and better enable healthcare professionals to spend more time with patients. The hospital’s ecosystem of care has evolved into a cohesive system, each innovation strengthening the others, all rooted inthe same shared mission of compassion and service.
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