Artificial Intelligence to Tweak the Diagnosis in Future

A panel discussion on the responsibilities of the leaders in the growing sector of Diagnostics in the next decade at Diagnostics Summit 2019 presented by BW Healthcareworld.

The panel was chaired by Rahul Guha, Partner & Lead of Healthcare & Life Sciences, BCG along with the panellists Dr A Velumani, Chairman, Managing Director & CEO, Thyrocare, Dr Om Manchanda , CEO, Dr Lal Pathlabs, Dr Harsh Mahajan, Founder & Chief Radiologist, Mahajan Imaging and Sanjeev Vashishta, Managing Director & CEO.

The discussion was mainly focused on ACT- Advocacy, Capability and Technology.

Advocacy comprises of three pillars, which includes government, patients and doctors. Adding to it, Dr Velumani said, “Medical practitioners need to look prescription more seriously as it can make the difference in terms of better diagnosis. And it is not restricted to the medical practitioners but the government and policymakers play a crucial role. But, the Government can’t grow the business but practitioners can.

Education, an essential aspect that can help in improved understanding for the need of this sector. Adding to it, Dr Mahajan said, “To make the use of the upcoming technologies, we need to understand it first and that can only come with education. Such technologies are not used for the sake of it but for the précised diagnosis and improved treatment.

“There has been a perception of private sectors to be expensive. Being the service provider, we need to break the platitude and create our identity,” said Dr Manchanda. He also added, “Though the diagnostic is a small segment of the healthcare sector we need to provide the best possible diagnosis to enhance our capability.”

Whereas Vashishta said, “Excellence can be achieved by going back to the basics. If we talk about the basics, we can’t neglect the fact of poor infrastructures in the diagnostic laboratories and centres.”

Technology is going to play a crucial role in diagnostics. With Artificial Intelligence, there will be a reduction in manpower but it will ameliorate the diagnostic results.

The discussion summed up with the idea of education and technology can upgrade the current scenario of diagnostics in the country.