The Next Big Wave

With remote healthcare becoming the new normal, India is fast adopting AI to improve human-machine collaboration and drive better patient care

- Aanchal Ghatak

The introduction of information technology in healthcare at various points in history has been largely hailed as watershed moments. Nobody can doubt about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI). When it comes to healthcare sector in India, AI is the new age wheel or fire, which can revolutionize the entire landscape. Healthcare today, faces significant challenges on quality, accessibility and affordability, for a large section of the Indian population.

At its core, much of healthcare is pattern recognition. It is used across six healthcare segments: hospitals, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical equipment and supplies, medical insurance, and telemedicine.

AI enables healthcare services to be delivered at minimum cost with increased efficiency, and an emphasis on the diagnostics. It is also used to predict, comprehend, learn and act. It has the ability to play the main role in the areas of wellness, early detection, diagnosis, decision making, treatment, research, and training. India comprises of a healthcare ecosystem where 80% of the healthcare is expensive. And, 70% of our population is living in rural areas with marginalized, inaccessible healthcare.