The future is here

Apollo Hospitals is using AI to detect and treat a range of diseases

quest column
By Suneeta Reddy managing director, Apollo Hospitals

When OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT—an advanced, interactive, generative artificial intelligence platform—it captured everyone’s imagination. Here was something that could clear the bar exam, the medical exam, write poetry, songs and de-bug computer programmes. The excitement around ChatGPT is because of its easy conversational style and its versatility.

Now that the potential of AI has been understood by a broad spectrum of our people, imagine its impact on a sector like health care. Imagine if the power of AI could be used to accelerate and support diagnoses by clinicians, based on big data models that mined millions of prior cases as well as evolving research. Imagine if this capability could be deployed in the most under-served regions in India and the world, ensuring that everyone had equitable access to the highest quality of care. If nurses and doctors would be free to do what only they could do—provide the human, healing touch—everything else would be done seamlessly by AI. Imagine if AI could be used to predict disease much before it manifested. Most importantly, if it could predict propensity for disease at a population health level, bringing genomics, biomechanics and social determinants of health together, and provide a pathway to a healthy, disease-free world.

This may sound audacious, but all meaningful change begins with impossible ideas. And the truth is that a lot of the building blocks of these dreams are already in place. Let me share a few examples of what we have done at Apollo Hospitals.