AI, the doctor's new stethoscope - The Economic Times
Published 5 hours ago• 4 minute read
AI, the doctor’s new stethoscope
By & , ETtech
, early detection, and even drug discovery, either by building the technology in-house or through partnerships with new-age startups. Most of these solutions are helping streamline post-surgery care and improve patient engagement, according to experts.
India’s AI healthcare market is growing at 40.6% compounded annually, with a current market size of $1.6 billion, Nasscom and Kantar said in a recent report, highlighting growing AI adoption among healthcare service providers.
Experts say AI adoption is mainly aimed at driving operational efficiency in hospitals, boosting revenues. For instance, in the radiology department, AI tools can cut workloads by more than half, saving about 2-3 hours of documentation, doctors told ET.
Industry watchers pointed out that only large hospital chains or academic institutions are currently deploying AI for clinical trials, with targeted partnerships. Government hospitals are dependent on private hospitals and technology companies for experimenting with AI.
“One of the big opportunities for AI in India is making healthcare more accessible in vernacular languages, given the nuance in how symptoms are described across regions,” said Apollo CEO Dr Madhu Sasidhar.
Apollo is using its Clinical Intelligence Engine, combined with ambient listening tools, saving more than 2–3 hours of documentation work every day for its medical staff.
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Big tech firms such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM have also partnered with Indian hospital chains to co-develop AI-driven medical tools. Google is collaborating with Aravind Eye Hospital for AI-based diabetic retinopathy detection, while IBM Watson is supporting Manipal Hospitals in cancer treatment planning.
At Narayana Health, which specialises in cardiac care, large language models (LLMs) are being deployed to improve operational efficiency and predict clinical outcomes. One of its key projects is a machine learning model to predict sudden cardiac arrests in ICUs.
“Since ICUs monitor 60-70 parameters at once, interactions between them can become complex. Our model provides a continuous cardiac arrest risk score and explains why the patient’s condition may be deteriorating, giving doctors a several-hour advance warning,” said Vivek Rajagopal, group chief analytics and AI officer at Narayana Health. The tool is currently in early-stage deployment in select ICUs.
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Not just hospitals, startups are also rapidly developing AI-driven solutions anticipating partnerships with hospitals and clinics. In 2024, the healthcare sector raised $1.13 billion in funding, according to market intelligence platform Kredible, with diagnostics, telemedicine, and digital health seeing significant traction.
4baseCare, a Bengaluru-based precision oncology startup, is working with more than 250 hospitals to carry out precision diagnostic cancer treatment for people belonging to South Asia using a series of DNA and next generation sequencing tests, which were so far based on Caucasian or White people.
AIIMS Jammu has partnered with the startup to establish a Centre for Advanced Genomics and Precision Medicine, for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Spovum Technologies, incubated at IISc, Bengaluru, is using AI to improve outcomes in assisted reproductive technologies (ART), especially in IVF procedures.
“Globally, around 5% of oocytes get damaged during manual handling. With RoboICSI, we’ve demonstrated zero per cent degeneration by helping embryologists recognise patterns across more than 200 variables during the procedure,” said Ramnath Babu, co-founder.
The startup has already supported more than 2,000 procedures and it currently works with 41 IVF clinics across India.
Similarly, Garbhini-GA2, an AI model developed by IIT Madras and the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, aims to precisely estimate gestational age (GA) in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy for the Indian population, which was previously measured using Caucasian models.
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While AI adoption is on the rise, experts cautioned that healthcare organisations will need to develop governance frameworks to monitor its performance and outcomes over time. Patient data security is also a major concern as India's existing healthcare system lacks data protection measures.
Experts expect special provisions for healthcare data in the impending Personal Data Protection Bill to provide some direction.
Hitesh Goswami, cofounder, 4baseCare highlighted systemic challenges in greater adoption of AI in the healthcare sector. “AI and healthcare are like star-crossed lovers,” he said, and explained that data that is being fed into AI needs to be structured to generate insight and context that is clinically meaningful.
With genomics testing still expensive, 4baseCare is collaborating with state governments like Rajasthan through LuNGS Alliance to offer free next-generation genome sequencing (NGS) tests for lung cancer patients across India. The cost for the treatment is borne by the states.
“More states should adopt such policies, so more patients can benefit,” he said.image.png
Similar pain points were noted by hospital chains. “Healthcare always moves slower because of the stakes involved. We are dealing with real people, so we must validate systems rigorously before scaling. The technology exists, but it takes time for adoption to spread widely,” said a doctor helping startups develop AI tools.
