How New-age Technological Tools are ‘AI-ding’ the Transformation of India’s Healthcare Landscape
The advent of new and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) has transformed the way businesses across industries are functioning today, as each one looks at realigning to a more digitised operational framework. Machine and device-heavy industries are no exception to this and, of them, healthcare is undoubtedly one of the sectors with immense potential to benefit from the implementation of these technologies across processes and functions.
One of the leading healthcare markets in the world, India has made significant strides in the space over the last few decades, propelled by rising incomes, better access to health insurance, health awareness and an increasing number of lifestyle diseases. Additionally, the widespread penetration of the internet and a rising number of smartphone users in the country is facilitating online access for a much larger number of people. Such developments have resulted in the rapid growth of the Indian healthcare market, which has the potential to touch INR 8.6 trillion by 2022, as per IBEF data.
Accurate preliminary diagnosis and timely treatment:
As a larger number of healthcare providers implement advanced technologies, AI stands out amongst the most commonly used ones. This is because it is easy to implement, optimising and streamlining processes to a huge extent. Additionally, it is able to provide more accurate information in a fraction of the time that human staff take with traditional medical processes and tools. According to a report by Accenture, the AI health market is expected to touch USD 6.6 billion by 2021.
AI is being used to make accurate predictions and a preliminary diagnosis based on patient symptoms. It is able to analyse several complex datasets at once, and identify important insights for doctors to take action in a timely manner. In this way, they are also able to prioritise cases based on the severity, which has helped to significantly improve survival rates as well.
Breast cancer is a major disease for which specialists have launched AI-powered devices that are revolutionising the way screening is carried out. The Braster Pro is one such device, which is painless, free of radiation and provides accurate results in real-time. These factors also make it safe to use for screening younger women and girls. Backed by AI algorithms, the device uses thermographic imaging and a proprietary liquid crystal emulsion to detect even the smallest of lesions and irregularities in the breast. With this, it is able to record and present information about the breast structure within minutes, giving doctors the ability to act on it immediately if required.
With such technologies coming to the fore, there have been several innovations in med-tech in recent times both in India and abroad. They have created a positive impact on the standards of healthcare delivery across the country, via more efficient treatment processes and enhanced patient care while helping to cut down costs. Given the immense boost that these technologies are giving the sector, the Indian medical device industry is likely to grow to $50 billion by 2025, from the current $5.2 billion, as per a report by Invest India.
Optimising supply-chain operations:
Medical establishments have multiple requirements at any point in time, especially with emergencies and critical cases. Therefore, stock-keeping and supply management is of utmost importance. However, due to the unpredictability of requirements, staff are usually unable to keep up with the demand. This leads to overstocking, understocking and expiries, all of which drastically drive up the associated costs, resulting in the loss of revenue.
Here, too, the implementation of AI tools is augmenting the roles of staff by automating the management of stock-keeping units. For example, the intelligent inventory application ‘VIZI’ uses AI and ML algorithms to give healthcare providers accurate stock projections. It enables them to be proactive in their purchasing of supplies through an actionable purchase list of products, thus minimising expiries and ensuring that they are equipped to meet requirements on time and adequately.
Additionally, the application also helps medical establishments in keeping a track of their reserve/safety stock. This way they are able to purchase their SKUs in time to avoid a stock-out situation and deliver timely diagnosis/treatments.
Enhancing medical research processes:
Scientists around the world have been using the online collaboration route to carry out large-scale medical research. For this, they are engaging in what is called ‘citizen science’, where anyone from around the world can volunteer to contribute to specific parts of research projects conducted by scientists. Using AI, deep learning and predictive analytics tools, they are now able to effectively categorise data, verify the information and unearth valuable insights by removing demographic-related inconsistencies. In this way, several medical findings pertaining to major illnesses such as cancer and brain-functions have been put forth in a significantly lower timeframe than it would have taken with traditional methods.
Highlighted above are some of the ways in which AI and advanced technologies are transforming the healthcare landscape, for patients, hospital administration, doctors and researchers. While it is bringing about significant positives in terms of the delivery and standards of care, it is simultaneously helping medical establishments reduce costs which, in turn, is enabling greater accessibility for a larger number of people. With the immense benefits India stands to gain with the widespread use of AI, it is the way this is implemented that will ultimately propel the growth of the country’s healthcare sector, and its capacity to deliver standardised, high-quality medical care in a sustained manner.
