The article discusses how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help address the emergence of NCDs, a dominant health issue in India, supported by national-level quality data collection efforts.
The increasing incidence of the NCDs (Non-Communicable Diseases) in India is adding to the country’s disease burden and is posing a serious threat to the health and finances of both rural and urban India. NCDs are estimated to account for 63% of all deaths in India, of which 27% deaths are due to cardiovascular diseases and 26% deaths are caused by maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions.
According to a report published by the World Economic Forum and the Harvard School of Public Health, India stands to lose $4.58 trillion before 2030 due to NCDs and mental health conditions. The exorbitant and lengthy treatment of NCDs trap the population in poverty cycle, impact economic growth and stifle development.
To deal with and contain the impact of NCDs, the governments, private players and researchers are focusing on reducing the risk factors associated with the diseases. Investing in better management of NCDs is important. Early detection methods, screening and better primary health care are a part of early intervention exercise. This can result in effective and timely treatment. However, the Indian healthcare system is impeded by lack of viable infrastructure, accessibility and affordability.
In this light, discussions about convergence of IT in improving the livelihoods of the Indian population has been gaining traction and promises to ensure sustainability and scalability of solutions across the nation. Artificial Intelligence is one such creative way to tackle issues that are fundamental to healthcare, livelihood and economic growth.
The recent announcement in the Interim Budget for the year 2019-20 about the establishment of the National Centre on Artificial Intelligence and development of the National Artificial Intelligence portal has ensured India’s long-term commitment towards AI. In 2018, NITI Aayog released a paper enlisting healthcare as one of the main focus areas for the government, as it can be seen to rapidly change and benefit from the advent of AI. With the escalating burden of NCDs in India, AI can prove beneficial in early diagnosis, prevention, delivering patient-centered care, monitoring and containing chronic conditions.
Some of the technologies that can address the incidence of NCDs include usage of algorithms to identify high-risk pregnancies, anemia patients, preterm deliveries, screening tools, patient’s pulse data, etc. Simulations from natural language processing, image and voice recognition, intelligent agents, computer vision, machine learning, chatbots, etc. are useful for the hospital, healthcare providers, researchers and social scientists to improve the delivery of care, patient health outcomes, while being cognizant of associated costs.
WHO, in its Global action plan for the prevention and control of NCDs 2013-2020, has urged governments globally to generate health-related data to effectively promote healthcare. However, most of the current healthcare data in India is highly fragmented, unreliable and outdated. To effectively and sustainably address the epidemic of NCDs, it is crucial that AI looks beyond hackneyed productions of garbage can models, toolkit methods while dealing with data collection in India.For the simulations to deliver long-term and safe results in healthcare, the data needs to be accurate, free of any bias and ethically collected. Thus, private players, hospitals, agencies, government and civil societies need to come together to collect reliable, structured and ethical data.
The public health impact of NCDs and the corresponding loss of productivity, aggravated often by lack of quality services and personalised healthcare, wreak havoc not only on the children and families, but also to the overall socio-economic performance of India. The WHO Global action plan for the prevention and control of NCDs 2013-2020 emphasises that every US$1 invested to tackle NCDs will have a return of at least US$7 by 2030.
Thus, improvement in healthcare delivery supported by AI can help India tackle the increasing burden of NCDs, provided it invests in quality and credible data collection mechanisms.
Pallavi Karnatak
February 19, 2019
source https://indiaoutbound.org/ai-solutions-to-save-india-from-ncds-and-potential-economic-loss-of-4-58-trillion/
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