Introduction

The article published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in October, 2022 is a part of the report titled Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. In this article, the WEF states that India’s AI expenditure is expected to touch USD 11.78 billion by 2025 and will add USD 1 trillion to the economy by the end of 2035. AI is being integrated into the healthcare system in a rapid pace and is mostly used for screening diseases ranging from cancer, diabetic retinopathy, to cardiovascular disease.

Given this massive potential of AI in healthcare, it becomes essential to ensure that access to data is made on informed consent and accountability. To train AI models for prediction, patients’ data are used and hence, they must be made aware of how their data is being used and how it has influenced a particular treatment. The article highlights the point that AI should support healthcare decision making and not automate it. This can be done by enabling physicians to provide feedback on AI model proposals and provide a continuous learning loop.

For a country like India, integrating AI into healthcare systems requires an understanding of AI in national curricula for medical and public health students. For this and to build trust into integrating AI into India’s health system, the government should initiate appropriate investments in data infrastructure, such as interoperability, unified EMR and data stewardship. In addition to this, the government should also build public-private partnerships across the healthcare industry to facilitate co-ordination among the various stakeholders.

Relevance of the Report

The article comes at a time when India is facing shortage of qualified medical professionals which is hindering equitable access to healthcare. This often leads to a lack of high-quality diagnostic services where technology like AI can play a major role to transform the present scenario.

Key Takeaways

• Application of AI in healthcare is becoming more prevalent. The areas where this technology is being applied are early disease diagnosis, drug design process, drug trials, diabetic retinopathy, cancer treatments, cardiovascular disease, and eye care
• However, for a country like India, integrating AI into healthcare is not a one-day job. It requires careful planning and introducing AI-based curriculum in medical and health-science colleges
• However, the primary challenge of integrating AI in healthcare is public health data which requires collection and storage of huge amount of patient data. Hence, creating awareness among patients about their data usage is important
• AI should support healthcare decision-making and not be used a means to automate decision-making
• The government should make critical investments in the workforce, infrastructure, regulatory mechanisms, stakeholders, and business models to enable smooth integration of AI into the healthcare system