The AI Boom Promises To Be A Shot In The Arm For India’s Health-care Delivery Infrastructure

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom promises to be a shot in the arm for India’s health-care delivery infrastructure as it can vastly improve outcomes in solving the last-mile delivery challenge. The use of AI-powered diagnostic kits is reaching far and wide, making a tangible difference to people’s lives. A critical gap in the health-care delivery system is being filled with the help of AI as more people in the remotest parts of the country get the benefit of screening for diseases without having to travel to cities for basic tests.

The benefits of AI in health care are reaching the doorsteps of a vast majority that is still cut off from high-end diagnostics available only in big cities. Big hospital chains are deploying AI to serve as an important first layer for triage and data collection. It is enabling frontline workers to screen for abnormalities and flag any potential risks for further testing. It acts as an assistive tool that has the potential to make population-scale impact in improving India’s last-mile health-care delivery.

A large segment of people in India’s hinterlands are daily wage earners. For them, spending time at a health camp getting an X-ray done and waiting for a radiologist’s assessment would mean losing a day’s income. The use of AI in diagnostics has helped to solve this problem. For instance, under Medanta’s TB-free initiative, a bus equipped with X-ray machines that are attached to AI boxes helps in screening higher loads with precision. In less than a minute, the report is available and the person gets to know whether they need to go for further testing.

“AI is being used for screening and not detection. AI is not validating the X-ray and saying whether the person has tuberculosis or not, it is just filtering. It tells us whether the person needs a second look,” says Rajiv Sikka, group chief information officer, Medanta.

The potential for AI to change health-care delivery lies in its ability to be utilised at multiple stages. For instance, a person who wants to visit a hospital may not be sure what specialist should treat them. Max Hospital has come up with a symptoms-search feature in its app that uses AI to not only zero in on a specialist based on a patient’s symptoms but also to help the person understand what to expect at the hospital. Here, AI is being used as a preliminary triage to help patients reach the right doctors and for the doctor to get a pre-consultation summary of the patient’s health, all integrated in one app and powered by AI.

“At Max Healthcare, we built an AI-powered symptom-search feature that helps people find the right specialists by typing out the symptoms. We have a conversational chatbot that goes beyond appointment booking. It acts like a care navigator. We have built an in-house AI-powered prediction algorithm that tells you what to expect in the hospital. The system also prepares a pre-out patient- department summary of the patient that is visible to the doctor. And all of this is integrated,” says Arjun Sharma, senior director and chief digital officer, Max Healthcare.

While AI can’t replace a doctor, it can help to prioritise cases that need immediate attention. Early identification of people through effective screening is a powerful tool to make the last-mile delivery more impactful. More and more areas that are currently underserved can be covered with the help AI. Triaging can become one of the most important areas in the Indian health-care system where AI intervention can bring about a remarkable difference. From a daily wage earner to someone visiting a medical facility in a metro, the use of AI promises to speed up the process and improve the turnaround time.

Ankit Saproo is Editor–Special Projects, Outlook Business