AI-based solutions transforming public health system in India: Centre

The Health Ministry on Friday said it is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to drive transformative change in public health services across the country.

The ministry has designated AIIMS Delhi, PGIMER Chandigarh and AIIMS Rishikesh as 'Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence' with an aim to promote development and use of AI-based solutions in health.

The ministry has developed AI solution like Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) in e-Sanjeevani, Media Disease Surveillance Solution in IDSP, Diabetic Retinopathy Identification solution and the Abnormal Chest X-ray Classifier Model and various others are in early stages, said Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

'Media Disease Surveillance' (MDS) is an AI-driven tool that has been supporting event-based surveillance for infectious diseases since April 2022.

This tool scans digital news sources across the country and shares relevant information with districts for early action and response.

Since April 2022, it has published over 4,500 event alerts, contributing to the timely prevention and mitigation of disease outbreaks, thereby reducing mortality and morbidity.

The 'Clinical Decision Support System' (CDSS), an AI solution has been integrated into the national telemedicine platform, eSanjeevani, to enhance consultation quality by streamlining patient complaints entry and providing AI-based differential diagnosis recommendations.

Since CDSS integration, 196 million eSanjeevani consultations benefitted from standardized data capture, ensuring consistency across health and wellness centres and 12 million consultations have been aided by AI-recommended diagnoses, allowing doctors to make informed decisions.

Under the Tuberculosis elimination programme, 'Cough against TB' AI solution is used for screening for pulmonary TB in the community settings.

In the deployed geographies, the solution has shown an additional yield of 12-16 per cent in TB reported, which may have been missed if patients were screened using conventional methods.
The 'Prediction of Adverse TB Outcomes AI Solution' helps in predicting TB patients who have a high chance for going for adverse outcomes as soon as the patient is initiated on treatment. 27 per cent decline in adverse outcomes is reported after deployment of the AI Solution, said the ministry.