Artificial Intelligence in healthcare

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used with a limited scope in Indian hospitals. However, in developed countries, it is tested, and is being used for imaging in radiology (CT scan) and eye screening. AI can also be successfully used for CT and MRI scanning, which will benefit the patients. This will help detect rare diseases or for knowing patient prognosis and also to arrive at critical values during reporting. We can escalate the findings to the clinicians who refer patients to the hospital for diagnosis. At present, this process is being done manually. If there is a critical diagnosis/finding, rare or newer finding, which is found in diagnostic imaging through AI, it can be triggered to appropriate clinicians for proper decision making. This will help the doctor to institute the appropriate and best treatment by changing the existing course of treatment.

AI can be used in laboratory for escalating critical values and results where diagnostic tests can be automated.

At present, when tests turn positive for Covid patients, we inform the health department of the Corporation and also the patients’ referring doctors manually. AI technology – if adopted – will help doctors change the mode of treatment and help take damage-control steps effectively, so that patients become better quickly when appropriate treatments are administered.

AI helps patient monitoring and healthcare interventions.

Areas where AI will have relevance in healthcare setting:

• Healthcare administration;
• Clinical decision support;
• Patient monitoring;
• Healthcare interventions;
• Early detection of chronic illnesses, viz., cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases;
• Value-based care;
• Medical robots can help with surgical operations, rehabilitation, and assisted living; and
• AI-assisted surgical robots to analyze data from pre-operative medical records to physically guide a surgeon’s instrument in real time during a procedure or surgery. These robots are used in neurologic, orthopedic and laparoscopic procedures.

Reducing capital cost on medical equipment
Government of India is augmenting the number of medical colleges to impart MBBS and PG degrees in the country rapidly. Nevertheless, there is a huge gap between population-and-doctor ratio in the country.

There is an acute need for manufacturing hospital-related medical equipment in India. At present, they are manufactured outside our country and India imports them at huge cost. These medical equipment manufacturing companies can be lured to India. Thus, hospital healthcare manufacturing plants can be set up in India, which will provide jobs to people, and supply equipment to hospitals at reduced cost. Government of India should think on those lines to enable companies to manufacture medical equipment and also consumables with foreign collaboration. This will cut costs and also conserve foreign exchange resources. Ultimately, the patients will benefit immensely.

The government may advise the companies to utilize their CSR funds in medical colleges and trust hospitals in India to benefit poor patients. Government rules and regulations may be modified toward this end, so that the CSR funds that remain unutilized are effectively channelized and put to better use.

Graduating medical doctors alone will not help solve the present-day demand for medical needs of teeming millions in the country. The graduated doctors – on the other hand – need to be trained thoroughly, and their skills sharpened to enable them to perform surgeries and procedures, and also to evaluate patients effectively. For this, we need to create skill labs, where doctors can get trained without causing damage to the patients. This kind of state-of-the-art skill labs can be utilized for conducting examinations as well for medical students.

The author is Chief Operating Officer, KG Hospital.