Bangkok: The Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, has made a significant advancement in Thai public health by rolling out a locally developed artificial intelligence (AI) system for analyzing chest X-ray images. This AI innovation is now operational in over 610 network hospitals across the country, addressing the shortage of radiologists in remote areas and ensuring equitable access to quality medical care for all Thai citizens.
According to Thai News Agency, the SiAiR (Siriraj AI in Radiology) Laboratory, a unit under the Department of Radiology at Siriraj Hospital, has been pivotal in this development. Established in 2019, the lab's primary mission is to research and develop high-performance AI technologies for practical medical applications, supporting radiologists with precise and swift disease diagnosis. Over the years, SiAiR has developed more than 16 innovations, some of which are already in use, while others are in preparation for future implementation.
A key achievement is the AI program for analyzing chest X-ray images, developed in collaboration with Perceptra Co., Ltd. This program has been commercialized and certified by international and national bodies, including the Royal College of Radiologists of Thailand, the Thai Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Singapore FDA, and was registered in the Thai Innovation Registry in December 2023.
The NHSO board has approved these benefits for implementation in 610 network hospitals nationwide as of April 2026. This initiative alleviates the burden on provincial hospitals lacking specialized radiologists, allowing patients in remote areas to receive accurate test results comparable to those in urban centers, reducing travel time and costs, and ensuring rapid access to medical care.
The AI system's learning process utilizes high-performance, stable GPUs and large, high-speed memory, leveraging HPE's Cray Computer supercomputer alongside a large WekaIO Cluster storage system. This setup considerably reduces AI learning time, enabling the production of high-quality results swiftly.
Siriraj Hospital's ongoing collaboration and development efforts not only enhance patient care by providing faster and safer treatment but also lay a crucial foundation for advancing medical knowledge, developing expert personnel, and preparing the Thai public health system to effectively address emerging diseases in the future, thereby ensuring the sustainability of Thai society.