Technology is now dominating every field, the most talked about one being Artificial Intelligence. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has started in the healthcare sector in India, from hospitals to databases and research. Taking steps in this direction, the National Health Authority has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of digital public goods. This partnership was between the National Health Authority and IIT Kanpur.
IIT Kanpur will help
Under this MoU, IIT Kanpur will develop a federated learning platform, which will include a quality-preserving database for different machine learning model pipelines, open benchmarking for comparison and validation of AI models. The platform will include a consent management system for research under this MoU. the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). This platform will then be operated and managed by NHA, thereby unlocking the enormous potential of AI to improve health outcomes.
The Health Secretary said this:
Commenting on the agreement, the Health Secretary said that “This is a very important MoU under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission”. It will create an open public benchmarking platform to compare and validate AI models. This will make it easier to use data to improve health outcomes. This will create a public benchmark for measuring and diagnosing diseases using data available under ABDM, against which other AI models can be compared. The Health Secretary further said that in clinical settings, availability of reliable data will lead us to better outcomes and will result in better diagnostics.
Why is digital health important?
Digital health is proving to be an important step in boosting the healthcare sector in India. Launched by Prime Minister Modi on September 27, 2021, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) aims to establish a robust digital health ecosystem through active collaboration between the public and private sectors. Under this, hospitals, clinics, laboratories, pharmacies, and health insurance funds are to be brought together.
AI has the potential to revolutionise the healthcare ecosystem in India and some experts suggest that, combined with ABDM’s digital health ecosystem, it could lead to significant advancements in disease diagnosis, treatment planning and patient outcomes.
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