AI booster shot

Health care will benefit the most from all the transformation AI is ushering in across sectors

- SUNIL THOMAS

CIM HAS NOT attended medical college. It is not even human. But the AI-based engine is way more equipped to give a better diagnosis than you googling your symptoms and hoping to play doctor. Recently integrated into the clinics at Apollo Hospitals, CIM, or Clinical Intelligence Machine, analyses symptoms, determines causes and recommends the best course of action for a patient.

The engine is only part of the many AI-based initiatives implemented by Apollo across the country to “improve diagnosis, doctor productivity and patient satisfaction,” said Sangita Reddy, joint managing director of Apollo Hospitals. “We have moved a step forward for better patient experience. Technology is transforming the face of healthcare, making it more patient-centric and also reducing the burden on health care professionals.”

Startups and tech companies have been devising AI and ML tools that can assist in healthcare, both preventive and curative. “From the perspective of AI for social impact, health care is an immediate beneficiary,” said Soma Dhavala, director, machine learning at Wadhwani AI, an institute which studies how AI can be used to improve lives and livelihood.

Apollo has launched many AI initiatives. AI-CVD, for instance, is an intelligent platform to predict heart attacks—designed specifically keeping Indians in mind. It is developing similar AI-based algorithms for diabetes, cancer and other non-communicable diseases, too. Besides CIM, it uses ProHealth platform, an AI-enabled personalised predictive health-risk assessor that uses data and functions to personally guide individuals to manage their own health.