NHCS Develops AI That Reads Heart Attack Damage in Under a Minute
Source: National Heart Centre Singapore
The National Heart Centre Singapore has developed CARDIA-GM, an AI platform that analyses cardiac MRI scans to detect post-heart attack damage in under 60 seconds with 95% accuracy — compared to up to an hour for manual expert review.
The National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) has unveiled a breakthrough AI platform that could dramatically speed up how doctors assess heart attack damage. Named CARDIA-GM, the system analyses cardiac MRI scans to detect scarred tissue and microvascular obstruction in under 60 seconds with 95% accuracy — a task that currently takes clinicians up to an hour. The research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Singapore, accounting for roughly one-third of all fatalities, with over 13,000 heart attack episodes recorded annually. The current manual MRI analysis process is not only time-intensive but also subjective, with results varying between clinicians. CARDIA-GM was trained on approximately 3,000 images from over 500 patients across three healthcare centres, with an independent cohort followed for up to eight years, demonstrating consistent accuracy across different hospitals, scanner types, and patient populations.
The clinical implications are significant. Patients with more than 20% heart muscle scarring face roughly three times the risk of a future cardiac event, while those with significant microvascular obstruction face up to six times higher risk. With CARDIA-GM, care teams can determine damage severity immediately after a scan and personalise treatment strategies without waiting for lengthy manual review. The platform was developed with funding from the National Health Innovation Centre and is slated for deployment across multiple medical centres in Singapore for wider validation.
Why it matters for Singapore: CARDIA-GM exemplifies how Singapore's research institutions are translating AI into tangible clinical tools that directly address the city-state's leading cause of death. With NHCS aiming to roll the platform out across multiple local medical centres, this technology has the potential to become a standard-of-care tool that sets a benchmark for AI-assisted cardiac care in Asia and beyond.