After two years of fighting the Covid pandemic, the Narendra Modi government is betting big on artificial intelligence (AI) to help it keep track of disease outbreaks across India.
A tool currently being developed by a private company along with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will scan all media reports related to health, to create a database of outbreaks of 33 diseases — some with the potential to become epidemics — that are monitored under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the private company for developing two tools initially — one to track disease outbreaks, and another to develop an AI-based system to interpret X-ray reports based on an India-specific database. The starting database will be of 1,20,000 X-ray images, but more will be added as the tool progresses.
“We plan to use artificial intelligence in a big way in public health. This is the first step towards that. We have told the company that they can do the project as part of their corporate social responsibility, but the intellectual property rights for whatever they develop will be with the government,” a senior health ministry official told ThePrint.
“Currently, we scan the media for outbreak reports ,but that is done manually once a day and largely limited to English and Hindi media. But the AI tool will also scan vernacular media. The data will be shared with IDSP state units which can then send personnel on the ground for assessment. This will ensure that the response time is reduced,” the official explained.