| I have hay fever, also known as allergic rhinitis, and am not always sure whether or not I should see a doctor, because my symptoms can be hard to predict. One morning, they could be too minor to bother a doctor, but turn very bad the next, with my breathing strained. I wish there was a doctor near me available 24 hours a day to prescribe medication or give me a treatment plan. Although the symptoms of hay fever are generally mild, the condition is common — as much as 24% of the people in Singapore have it. So the disease takes a lot of public health resources because certain treatments, like some nasal steroid sprays, aren’t sold over the counter. Unlike in many countries where the disease is triggered by allergens based on seasons, in Singapore, the main culprits are dust mites and mold due to the city-state’s tropical climate and high humidity. Now a team at Singapore’s Ng Teng Fong General Hospital is trying to solve my 24-hour medical needs by using artificial intelligence to track and manage the disease. The AI program, Project ENTenna, is signing up patients to interact any time with a WhatsApp chatbot to report symptoms and medication use. This system collects data and tracks trends over time, giving both patients and doctors a better picture of how the condition is progressing and how well treatment plans are being followed. AI also uses the patients’ data, like age and where they live, to predict flare-ups and help tailor personalized treatment plans that would reduce unnecessary hospital visits. The program, funded by the Singapore’s Ministry of Health, started at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and is now being rolled out across more public hospitals in Singapore. Right now, about 2,000 patients have enrolled, and the team is aiming for 6,000 in Singapore by 2026 and eventually even more from across Asia. The team is also working with China’s Sun Yat-Sen University to help with that nation’s high rate of hay fever. The AI program is designed to save time by providing doctors access to the system to view patient-reported data. For researchers and policymakers, the system offers a growing trove of demographic data, including symptom patterns by age, gender and environmental exposure. Early readings have even supported the eventual development of a national heat map for allergy flare-ups. Project ENTenna, the first database of its kind in Asia, could not only give clinicians better tools to manage patients in real time, but also pave the way for developing tailored therapies for Asian people, according to Ng Chew Lip, an ear, nose and throat specialist at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital who is also leading the program. The goal is to identify Asian-specific biomarkers and therapies and explore why patients have different responses to the same treatments. “Without this kind of database, precision medicine is just a slogan, not real,” says Ng. After allergic rhinitis, his team is also planning to use AI for asthma and other chronic conditions. Data-driven care “will not only transform the management of allergic rhinitis but also serve as a foundation for future chronic disease management models,” Ng says. — Karoline Kan | 
