PGI to help make cutting edge AI-based healthcare tools

Tribune News Service

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, March 19

Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here has been designated as a centre of excellence for artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare by the Ministry of Health. The move comes as the Central Government ramps up its efforts to promote the creation and use of AI-based solutions in healthcare.

The PGIMER is a premier medical education and research institute that has made significant contributions to the field of medicine over the years. Its expertise will be leveraged to develop AI-based tools that can aid healthcare professionals in providing accurate diagnosis and expert assistance to patients.

Project aimed at creating robust healthcare system

• A significant step towards achieving the Centre’s vision of creating a robust and accessible healthcare system for all citizens.
• By breaking data silos and creating a longitudinal electronic health record of every citizen, the project will integrate cutting-edge technologies with the existing health IT applications.
• It has the potential to revolutionise healthcare by making the latest AI-based technologies available to healthcare professionals.

Recently, the PGIMER developed a project, which was aimed at collecting a database of cancer-related radiology and pathology images from Indian patients and storing it digitally. The AI tools developed from this database will work with high precision on Indian patients, thereby assisting general radiologists or pathologists in providing accurate diagnoses at just the click of a button.

The project is a multi-institutional research effort involving leading healthcare institutions such as Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH), Mumbai; AIIMS, New Delhi; and Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, New Delhi. The collaboration is aimed at pooling resources and expertise to create a robust AI-based solution that can improve the accuracy and efficiency of healthcare services in India.

The centre of excellence for AI in healthcare is a significant step towards achieving the Indian Government’s vision of creating a robust and accessible healthcare system for all citizens. The government’s Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) is aimed at enabling the interoperability of health data within the health ecosystem, thus creating a longitudinal Electronic Health Record (EHR) of every citizen.

By breaking data silos and creating a longitudinal EHR of every citizen, the project will integrate cutting-edge technologies such as AI and blockchain with the existing health IT applications to improve the performance of health services.

The project has the potential to revolutionise healthcare in India by making the latest AI-based technologies available to healthcare professionals. With the rapid advancements in AI-based technologies, this centre of excellence for AI in health care will play a critical role in harnessing the power of AI to improve the quality of health care services in India.

The NITI Aayog of the Centre has also published two approach documents on AI for India, emphasising the need for responsible and ethical use of AI in healthcare and other sectors. The documents provide guidelines for the development and deployment of AI-based solutions, ensuring that these are safe, trustworthy and respect privacy and human rights.

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