SPEECH BY MR TAN KIAT HOW, SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION & MINISTRY OF HEALTH, AT CHI INNOVATE 2026, 2 JULY 2026

Mr Tan Tee How, Chairman, NHG Health

Prof Joe Sim, Group Chief Executive Officer, NHG Health

Sisters and brothers of the Healthcare Services Employees Union,

Distinguished guests,

Partners,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Introduction

1.               A very good morning to everyone. I am very happy to join all of you at the 10th CHI Innovate Conference.

2.               Over the past decade, CHI has become much more than just a conference. It has become a community. A place where people come together to solve difficult problems, to challenge old assumptions, to learn from one another, and ultimately, to improve the lives of our patients. To everyone who has contributed to that journey — our healthcare professionals, educators, researchers, workforce agencies, industry and technology partners, as well as our brothers and sisters from the union — thank you. Please give yourselves a round of applause.

Listening to our healthcare professionals

3.               In the theme of today, I would like to talk about the future of healthcare, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare. But before I do, let me begin with the past year. Since joining the Ministry of Health, I have spent a great deal of time listening. Listening to doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, social workers, community care teams, hospital administrators.

4.               I visited hospitals, polyclinics, and community care organisations. Of course, we discussed policies, we discussed manpower, we discussed technology, we discussed funding and budget. But those are not the conversations I remember most. The conversations I remember most were about people. About patients. About colleagues. About trying to do the right thing when there never seemed to be enough time. I came hoping to understand our healthcare system better. I left understanding our healthcare professionals better. And one thing stayed with me.

5.               You care. You care deeply about your patients. You care deeply about doing good work. You care deeply about your colleagues. My only wish is sometimes that you would care a little more about yourselves.

6.               Because I also realised something else. Every day, we ask our healthcare professionals, all of you, to make impossible choices. Spend another ten minutes explaining a difficult diagnosis and another patient waits. Stay behind to mentor a junior colleague and get home later to your own family. Take time to learn or finish another stack of documentation. Review one more complex case or finally stop to have lunch. These are not exceptional moments. They are ordinary days.

7.               And perhaps that is what concerns me most. We have become so accustomed to these impossible choices that we almost no longer notice them. We have quietly come to expect our healthcare professionals to do extraordinary things every single day. To somehow keep giving more. To somehow keep finding more time. To somehow just carry a little more. But you are not superhumans. You are human. And I do not believe we should build a healthcare system that depends on people making impossible choices every single day. That realisation has changed the way I think about technology over the last one year.

A different question about technology

8.               When I first came to MOH, I asked the questions many people ask. How capable will AI become? How quickly will it improve? What will it eventually be able to do? Today, after listening to so many of you, I find myself asking a different question. Not "What can technology do?" But "What does technology allow people to do?" Because technology has never been the purpose of healthcare. People are. People caring for people. Everything else is secondary.

9.               That is why I have come to see AI differently. Not as the main character. But as part of a much bigger story about how we build a healthcare system that allows good people to do their very best work. That is why I believe the most important question about AI is not how intelligent it becomes. The more important question is whether it helps us care better.

10.           Because every healthcare professional understands one thing: time. If I asked everyone in this room today what they wished they had more of, I suspect the answer would be exactly the same. Not another app. Not another dashboard. Not another report. Just more time. Time to explain one more diagnosis. Time to reassure one more family. Time to teach or mentor a junior colleague. Time to think before making a difficult decision. Time simply to care.

11.           And for years, our healthcare system has learnt to work around one persistent constraint. There is never enough time. Every roster, every workflow, every difficult decision— in one way or another, they are all shaped by that reality. Perhaps, for the first time in a long time, technology gives us an opportunity to change that. Not completely. Not overnight. But meaningfully.

12.           We are already beginning to see it. Routine documentation becoming easier. Information flowing more seamlessly across our healthcare system through our OneEMR. AI supporting clinicians with tasks that once took valuable time away from patients. These are important advances. But I do not think they are the real story.

13.           The real story is not that technology gives us back fifteen minutes. The real story is what fifteen minutes allows us to do. One more conversation with a worried family. One more opportunity to teach a younger colleague. One more moment to think before making a difficult decision. One more patient who feels heard. Technology can give us back time. It cannot tell us what the time is for. That choice still belongs to us. And I believe it is one of the most important choices healthcare will make in the years ahead. Because if technology gives us back fifteen minutes — what should we invest those fifteen minutes in?

Investing time in people

14.           There are many possible answers. We could simply fit in another meeting, complete another form, see another patient, or clear another inbox. Those things all matter. But if that is all we do, I think we will have missed a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Because the greatest value of technology is not that it helps us do more. It is that it gives us the chance to decide what matters more.

15.           And for me, the answer begins with people. If technology gives us back time, let us invest it in developing better healthcare professionals. Not simply more productive ones. Better ones. Technology can support decisions. But it cannot replace judgement. Technology can retrieve information. But it cannot build wisdom. Technology can recommend. But it cannot care. These qualities still belong to people. To all of you. That is why I believe one of the most important responsibilities we have in the age of AI is to continue developing excellent healthcare professionals. Not despite technology. But because of it.

Developing judgement, not just proficiency

16.           Think about how every experienced clinician in this room learnt your craft. Not from one lecture. Not from one examination. But from thousands of moments — watching, trying, making mistakes, reflecting, learning. Gradually, knowledge became judgement. Judgement became confidence. Confidence became trust. Now, those journeys are beginning to change. Today's junior doctors, today’s nurses, and today’s  allied health professionals will learn alongside tools that can recommend, summarise, and generate answers almost instantly. This is an extraordinary opportunity. But it also presents us with a profound responsibility. How do we ensure these tools accelerate learning without replacing the experiences that develop judgement? How do we ensure that tomorrow's clinicians become not simply faster, but wiser?

17.           Because healthcare has never depended simply on professionals who know the answers. It depends on professionals who know when the answer is incomplete. When the patient sitting in front of them does not fit the textbook. When uncertainty matters. When reassurance matters. When compassion matters.

18.           That is why our challenge is not simply responsible AI. It is responsible professional development in the age of AI. We have long understood the risks of deskilling. Today, we must also guard against mis-skilling — people becoming highly proficient at using technology, but less confident exercising their own judgement. Patients deserve better than that. Our healthcare professionals deserve better than that too. Technology should strengthen expertise, but never replace it.

Workforce transformation is about people

19.           This is why I believe workforce transformation is ultimately about people. Not platforms. Not software. People. So when we talk about redesigning work, as what we heard just now, we are really talking about redesigning how people experience work. How they learn. How they collaborate. How they grow throughout a career.

20.           That is what impressed me most about the CHI Workforce Accelerator. It does not begin with technology. It begins with a much more fundamental question: "If we were designing healthcare today, knowing what we now know, would we organise work in exactly the same way?" Sometimes the answer is yes. Often, it is no. And that is where innovation begins. Not with a new piece of technology. But with people having the courage to rethink long-held assumptions. And the Workforce Accelerator gives healthcare professionals the space to do exactly that — to redesign jobs, to redesign workflows, to redesign care itself. That is far more powerful than simply introducing another digital tool.

21.           The same thinking runs through many of the initiatives showcased here at CHI. The Clinical AI Fellowship is not simply about teaching clinicians how to use AI. It is about preparing leaders who can guide teams through change responsibly — who understand both technology and clinical practice, and who can ask not only "Can we do this?" but also "Should we?"

22.           VirtCHILL is another good example. The technology is impressive. But that is not what matters most. It is the confidence it builds, the judgement it develops, and the teamwork it strengthens.

23.           JETS asks us to imagine something equally important. Not just new technologies. But new careers, new responsibilities, and new opportunities to contribute. Different initiatives. One common purpose. It’s investing in people.

24.           Because technology does not transform healthcare. People transform healthcare. Technology simply gives people new possibilities. That is why I remain optimistic. Not because these tools are becoming more capable. But because I have met healthcare professionals- many of you, who are prepared to keep learning, prepared to question, prepared to adapt, and prepared to lead. Technology may change the work we do. But it is people who determine the future of healthcare.

Empowering patients and caregivers

25.           But there is one more group of people we need to talk about: and that is our patients. Because healthcare has never been something professionals do alone. The best healthcare happens when patients understand their conditions, when caregivers feel confident, when families know where to turn, and when people are equipped to play a more active role in their own health. Technology should help us build that future too.

26.           Today, many Singaporeans still navigate different healthcare applications, different logins, and different ways of accessing care. We can do better. That is why we are bringing together HealthHub and our cluster applications into a single digital front door, which we are on track to launch by November this year. At one level, this is about making digital services simpler. But I believe it is about something much more important. It is about making healthcare easier to understand, easier to navigate, and easier to participate in. Because when people understand their own health, they make better decisions. When caregivers have better information, they become stronger partners in care. When patients are more confident, healthcare becomes something we build together — not something that is simply delivered to them. Technology should not only strengthen our healthcare professionals. It should strengthen every Singaporean's ability to care for themselves and the people they love. That is how healthier societies are built.

Closing

27.           Let me finish where I began. Over the past year, I have met many healthcare professionals. How doctors go the extra mile to explain complex diagnosis to patients. Nurses going beyond their duty to comfort anxious families long after their shifts should have ended, watching therapists celebrate the smallest milestones with their patients, watching social workers work tirelessly to bring together organisations that rarely sit around the table so they can provide better care for their clients. And I have watched colleagues quietly look after one another. None of these moments will ever appear in a report. But together, they define our healthcare system. They remind us that healthcare has never simply been about treating illness. It has always been about caring for people.

28.           Sometimes we describe healthcare professionals as heroes. And all of you are. But I hope we never build a healthcare system that depends on heroics. Heroics are acts of individual courage. Healthcare must be built on systems that help ordinary people do extraordinary things together.

29.           That, to me, is the promise of this moment. Not that technology replaces people. But that it allows people to spend more of themselves on the things that only humans can do.

30.           Technology may become more capable. Our responsibility is to ensure that people become even more capable alongside it.

31.           And that is the future that I hope we will build together. A future where healthcare professionals spend less time on paperwork and more time with patients. Where learning continues throughout an entire career. Where technology strengthens judgement rather than replacing it. Where patients become active partners in their own care. Where innovation makes healthcare not only smarter, but kinder. Not only more efficient, but more human.

32.           So if we succeed, people will not remember this as the moment AI transformed healthcare. They will remember it as the moment we chose to use technology to strengthen what has always mattered most. People caring for people.

33.           And I thank CHI for being an important partner in the ecosystem, and wish you all the very best in the coming years. I look forward to see what will happen, the achievements you make in 2026. Thank you very much.