AI-based software tools could help elevate the efforts of healthcare professionals and allow them to deal with the pandemic better, Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, chairman and ED, Narayana Hospitals, Delhi, has said.
“For healthcare to be affordable and safer, pen and paper need to be replaced by mobile devices in the hands of doctors, nurses and medical technicians. Hospitals must begin collaborating with startups in the telemetric and robotics fields to be ready to face future pandemics,” Dr Shetty was quoted as saying in a release by the Electronics and IT Ministry.
Dr Shetty was speaking on leveraging AI for pandemic preparedness at the final day of RAISE 2020–‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020’ Summit on Friday. The summit deliberated on role of AI in fostering collaboration and innovation, and measures to create intelligent data repositories that can catalyze innovation using AI.
Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, CIO, Apollo Hospitals also spoke on the occasion and said hospitals need to show urgency in adopting AI-based software tools.
“Hospitals must act fast in adopting AI, catch the right data at the right time, build capacities with the right resources and build, deploy sustainable AI-driven tech solutions across practices,” he said.
Dr. Harpreet Singh, Scientist and Head – Division of Biomedical Informatics, ICMR, said the country’s apex medical body is using AI-based tools to quickly scale up COVID-19 testing in India. AI is also being used to predict mortality rate with high accuracy, he said.
The day witnessed two sessions showcasing initiatives by the governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to promote the use of AI in governance. RB Udhayakumar, IT Minister, Government Tamil Nadu and Sathyanarayana BV, Deputy Head, Karnataka Startup Cell delivered keynote addresses at these sessions.
Henri Verdier, French Ambassador for Digital Affairs and Dr. Natalia Jimenez Lozano, Atos Director of HPC, AI and Quantum Life Sciences Center of Excellence, Cambridge, UK delivered keynote addresses at a session on AI governance and Institutional Mechanism for Collaboration and innovation. They spoke on the need to build robust institutional mechanisms to encourage continued collaboration on AI between countries.
“The current crisis has highlighted how important AI is in helping countries fight the pandemic. Governments, civil societies and corporations must increase collaboration in AI to maximize benefits to the society. This is of paramount importance. Transparency, accountability and protection of privacy are key to building reliable AI frameworks," Verdier said.
RAISE 2020 is a first-of-its-kind global meeting of minds on Artificial Intelligence to drive India's vision and roadmap for social transformation, inclusion and empowerment through responsible AI. Organized by Government of India along with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and NITI Aayog, the event is witnessing robust participation from global industry leaders, key opinion makers, Government representatives and academia, the IT Ministry added.